


Everything I Never Believed In

by NainThePain



Category: Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, And Nico's broody about it, Don't worry, F/F, Karolina's getting married, Wedding, Wedding Planning, but there's a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26174113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NainThePain/pseuds/NainThePain
Summary: When Nico lets Gert drag her along to her friend's wedding so she won't have to face her ex alone, she's expecting a quiet weekend ending with a stranger's wedding.What she was not expecting was to fall head over heels for the bride.
Relationships: Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean/Xavin
Comments: 48
Kudos: 120





	1. T Minus Four Days

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multi-chapter work and also my first actual AU, I worked really hard on it so I hope you like it.

#### T minus four days until the wedding.

“Would you stop that?” Gert scolds as she slaps Nico’s hand away from the radio in the dashboard of her car. 

“I will, as soon as you let me put on some actual music,” Nico grumbles as she slumps down in the passenger seat. 

“You know the rules, the driver picks the music,” Gert reminds her with a smirk, and Nico rolls her eyes. 

If she didn’t know the rules before, she definitely does now, after nearly four hours of listening to Val Rhymin. How was she supposed to know this was what Gert was going to pick? Nobody even listens to the radio anymore anyways!

“And besides, Val’s the only station host worth listening to anymore. His critical commentary on the beauty industry is the only-”

Nico sighs, leaning back further in her seat and closing her eyes. “Not this again, Gert. Keep your stupid station. I’m going to sleep.”

—————

“Wake up, sleeping beauty,” Gert says as a finger pokes at Nico’s cheek. “We’re here.”

“Ugh, what the heck?” Nico grumbles as she cracks an eye open, swatting at the other girl’s hand. “Stop it!”

It’s bright wherever they are, mid-afternoon probably. And the way that Gert is pulling their suitcases out of the back of her green flatbed that they’d spent the last five hours in implies they’ve arrived, so Nico groggily hops out of the truck and onto the gravel parking lot. 

“I’ve already checked us in, we’re in room 109,” the purple haired girl explains as she passes Nico her bags. 

“Okay,” she responds, still not entirely awake. 

They deposit their bags by the entrance to their room, and Gert pulls out her phone, presumably texting her friends to tell them they’re here, while Nico flops face first onto the queen bed in the centre of the room. 

“Hey, no sleeping!” Gert shouts just as Nico is starting to fall back asleep. 

“What? Why?” she asks as she buries her face in the pillows. 

“We’re meeting everyone at Victor’s, they’re all already there. Come on,” she says, grabbing Nico’s arm and attempting to drag her towards the door. 

Nico stays limp though and Gert isn’t able to make any progress. “Go without me,” she mumbles, her voice muffled by the pillows. “They don’t know me anyways. They won’t care.”

“They want to meet you though!” Gert insists, but Nico still makes no move to get up. “Please Nico? He’s going to be there…” she adds, her voice small and Nico hates herself for being such a good friend. 

“Fine. Give me like, five minutes to recover from the drive here, and then we can leave.”

“Okay thank you! I’ll be in the truck,” Gert says before rushing out the door. 

Nico quickly changes and washes her face before touching up her makeup and meeting Gert at the truck. 

“I hate you,” she says as she climbs into the passenger seat and Gert just grins at her. 

“I know.”

—————

It’s only about a fifteen minute drive before they’re pulling into the driveway of a moderately sized house, silver balloons printed with _Congratulations!_ lining the walkway up to the front door. 

“Okay,” Gert says as she steps out of the truck and off the running board. “Be good.”

Nico rolls her eyes. “I’m always good,” she replies, deadpan, flashing Gert a sarcastic grin when she turns towards her with a disapproving look on her face. 

“Nico.”

“I’ll be good,” she nods, even if she doesn’t really know what Gert means by that. She _is_ always good, isn’t she?

They walk up the steps together and Gert takes a deep breath before ringing the bell. The door swings open seconds later to reveal a boy around their age grinning at them. He has dark hair that is swept to the side and a kind smile, and if this was the Chase Gert was always going on about, well, Nico gets it. 

They’re quickly ushered inside, only Nico bumps right into Gert who seems to have frozen after entering the threshold. She follows her gaze and sees she’s locked eyes with a boy with long blond hair who’s staring at her from across the room.

“Chase…” Gert breathes, and Nico’s a little surprised because this muscular man-child with a goatee and a lopsided smile was not what she had been picturing all these years when Gert told her about her high school sweetheart whom she had insisted she was over. Despite the fact that Nico could always very clearly tell that that wasn’t the case. 

And then Gert’s gone, already halfway across the room on her way to talk to Chase, and Nico can’t help but laugh. 

“Nico, right?” the boy in front of her asks, still smiling. 

“Uh, yeah,” Nico nods, taking his outstretched hand and shaking it.

“I’m Victor.”

“Nice to meet you, Victor. I’m guessing that’s Chase?” she asks, motioning towards where Gert’s now standing across the room, blushing as she places her hand on Chase’s elbow. 

“Yeah, I’m assuming you’ve heard about him?” Victor laughs, and Nico nods along, amused. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gert flirt like this before,” she remarks. 

“Don’t worry, if she and Chase spend any time together you’ll be sick of it soon enough,” a sweet voice says from behind her just as a timer goes off in the kitchen. 

Nico spins around to find the owner of the voice, a tall, blonde girl with sparkling blue eyes and a kind smile staring back at her, as Victor excuses himself to go tend to something in the kitchen. 

“Oh,” is all Nico manages to say in response, because seriously how, in all the years they had known each other, had Gert not told her that all her friends were so ridiculously attractive? 

“You and Gert are sharing a hotel room, right?” she continues when Nico doesn’t say anything more. 

She nods. 

“Well, I wouldn’t wait up for her tonight,” the blonde smirks. 

“Wait, seriously?” Nico asks, surprised enough to finally get her voice back. “You think they’re getting back together today?”

“Oh, totally. Chase has been pining after her ever since she moved away, and I’d guess Gert feels the same way.”

“I don’t know, the whole reason she dragged me along to the wedding of someone I’ve never even met was so that she didn’t need to face him alone…”

“Alright, well twenty dollars says they get back together before tomorrow.”

Nico laughs. “Yeah? Okay, you’re on.”

The blonde smiles and holds out her hand for Nico to shake, which she does. 

“Karolina,” the taller girl finally introduces herself. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too. I’m Nico,” she answers. 

“Want to sit down?” Karolina offers, motioning towards the couches, and Nico follows, taking a seat across from her. 

Gert and Chase are standing nearby, and move to join them on the couches once they sit down. Nico doesn’t fail to notice how close they’re sitting, and mentally curses herself for making that bet. Gert definitely isn’t coming back to the hotel until late tonight. 

“So you’re the new best friend then, huh?” Chase asks, turning towards Nico. 

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” she shrugs, suddenly nervous at having everyone’s attention on her. 

“Oh please, we were roommates freshman year in dorms and we’ve been great friends ever since,” Gert explains, and Nico raises an eyebrow at her. 

“Okay, fine. Maybe not ever since. She kind of hated me at first, but that’s on me,” Gert elaborates. “But since then we’ve been great friends.”

“Hold up,” Chase says, raising a hand. “You hated Gert?” 

“Yeah. She kept stealing my stuff and she wouldn’t shut up about her friends back home and how she missed them. In my defence, she was really annoying those first few weeks,” Nico explains, raising her arms in mock surrender. 

“It’s true, I was,” Gert nods, and they all laugh. 

Victor comes out of the kitchen then with a bottle of wine, trailed by a younger girl with long brown hair and overalls featuring a cat on the front, as well as a dark haired individual in jeans and a purple button up shirt done up all the way to the collar, each carrying some wine glasses. 

“Okay, dinner’s in the oven,” Victor says as he pours and passes out glasses of wine. “Should be ready in about half an hour.”

“Oh, Nico, this is Molly, and that’s Xavin,” Gert says, gesturing towards the people in question. 

Nico greets them and they all exchange pleasantries, and it isn’t long until the seven of them are all laughing and talking together as if Nico had been a part of the group all along. 

“So what are you studying, Nico?” Xavin asks after a little while, and Nico tears her eyes away from watching Karolina laugh at something Molly had said. 

“Fashion design,” she responds distractedly. 

She barely even knows Karolina but even Nico, who generally hates new people as a rule, can tell that she’s something special. She just… cares. About everyone, and everything, and she’s so kind, and not to mention gorgeous, and Nico really needs to get a grip because this is entirely out of character for her. 

“Ooh, that’s so cool!” Molly all but squeals and Nico smiles at her. She seems like she’s a few years younger than the rest of them, but she’s undoubtedly a core member of the friend group and everyone clearly treats her like a little sister. 

“Thanks,” Nico smiles. 

“Yeah, she’s actually been helping me out with my latest film project. She’s really good,” Gert adds proudly, and yeah, if the lovesick look Chase is giving the girl next to him right now is any indication, Nico’s out twenty dollars. At the very least though it’ll give her an opportunity to talk to Karolina again, so maybe it’s worth it. 

“What kind of clothes do you design?” Karolina asks curiously, but Gert interjects before Nico has the chance to respond. 

“Dark, broody clothes mostly,” she says, doing her best to keep a straight face but ultimately dissolving into giggles. Nico rolls her eyes at that- Gert has always been a lightweight. 

“Hey, I _wear_ dark, broody clothes. I design all kinds of things,” Nico corrects, unable to keep a smile off her face. 

Okay, so maybe she isn’t the best at holding her alcohol either. At least she made it past her second glass though, unlike a certain purple-haired individual who was currently almost entirely draped across Chase. 

“I hope you will make an exception for this occasion,” Xavin says from where they’re seated on the armchair, Victor perched on one of the armrests. “It is not customary to wear black to a wedding, and while I am not superstitious I do not believe my betrothed’s mother will appreciate it. I do not wish for her to cause another scene.”

Nico opens her mouth to answer, but Victor speaks up before she can. 

“Xavin, shush. I’m sure she’s not wearing black to the wedding. Right?” he adds, looking towards Nico who nods in confirmation. 

“Definitely not. Gert made sure I brought a suitable dress, don’t worry,” she reassures, and Xavin nods, satisfied with her answer. 

Victor readjusts his position on the armrest and slips a bit, grabbing onto Xavin’s shoulder to steady himself. Xavin quickly moves to help him, but Victor shakes his head and motions that he’s good so they sit back again. After that interaction though, Nico notices how they watch him out of the corner of their eye. 

She smiles to herself. She’s not usually one to generally care about people, but Gert’s friends were all super nice and welcomed her eagerly. She actually isn’t entirely dreading the upcoming wedding, and even she has to admit that Victor and Xavin make a cute couple. 

“So tell us an embarrassing story about Gert!” Molly shouts a little too enthusiastically and Chase quickly reaches over to take her empty wine glass from her. 

“No more underage drinking for you, Molls,” he says in a brotherly way, and Molly pouts. 

“Aw come on, I’m nineteen! If we were in Canada I could drink…” she whines. 

“Sorry kid, you’re stuck here with us. No more wine for you.”

Molly sighs but looks over to Nico expectantly, who then looks to Gert and shrugs, a grin on her face as Gert realizes just which story she’s going to tell. 

“So you know Gert’s truck?” she starts, and everyone nods. 

“Old Lace? You still have her?” Chase asks, turning to Gert, who nods. “Man, we had some good times in that backseat…” he trails off, and Gert slaps his arm as a mortified look comes across her face. 

“Okay. Moving on,” Nico says quickly, trying not to think too hard about what Chase had just said. She still has a five hour drive back home in about a week in that truck, after all. 

“So we were just moving into our apartment after our first year in dorms, and we had loaded all of our stuff into the back of Old Lace. I had asked this guy from our floor, Max, to help us load some of our stuff, but I guess I forgot to tell Gert.”

“And that’s the end of the story,” Gert interrupts, and Chase laughs. 

“Oh, you wish,” Nico says with a smirk before continuing. “Anyways, it turns out Gert had a crush on him, and she kind of freaked out when she thought he was stealing our stuff.”

“I did not freak out!” Gert insists, but Chase shushes her. 

“Let the girl finish,” he says with a chuckle. “I want to see where this goes.” 

“Thank you, Chase. So Gert goes into this full on speech about trust and respect and whatever else, and by the end of it she’s got a good dozen strangers who had been walking by stopping to applaud her, meanwhile poor Max has no idea what’s going on.”

“Meanwhile Nico here’s just standing there laughing,” Gert mumbles, crossing her arms. “You could’ve told me!”

Everyone laughs as Nico finishes the story, and they share their own embarrassing Gert anecdotes, much to her displeasure. 

“Seriously, I’m really glad you’re all getting along so well with Nico and everything, but do I have to keep reliving my most embarrassing moments?” Gert asks after Molly, Karolina, and Victor have all shared their favourite stories. 

“Does anyone else smell that?” Xavin asks after a pause in the conversation once the laughter has died down.

“Oh no, my food!” Victor shouts, jumping up from his seat and rushing into the kitchen, Molly running after him. 

He returns a few minutes later looking dejected. “Dinner is officially ruined,” he says with a sigh. “Unless anyone here likes thoroughly charred casserole?”

“I think I saw tortillas and black olives in the cupboard?” Chase offers, but Victor’s frown only deepens. 

—————

Xavin and Chase have left to get pizza while Victor and Molly attempt to salvage what’s left of the dinner they had spent the day working on, along with Gert’s help. That leaves only Nico and Karolina sitting alone in the living room, and while Nico is incredibly thankful to the powers that be for this opportunity, she also has no idea what to say. And so the silence is stretching into awkward territory when Karolina finally speaks up. 

“Want to go wait on the porch? It’s a beautiful night,” she says, and Nico is quick to agree. 

They make their way outside and sit down on the front steps. They chat for a while about little things, and Nico’s surprised at how easy it is, doing this with someone she’s only just met. Eventually there’s a lull in the conversation, and they watch as the sky grows increasingly darker as they wait for Xavin and Chase to get back. 

They stay like that, sitting in a comfortable silence and it’s weird, because Nico doesn’t hate it. Something about the girl next to her makes her feel comfortable, and she doesn’t quite know what to make of it. 

She’s trying to think of something to say when Karolina turns to her with a smile on her face, and Nico suddenly wants to know why she’s smiling so wide so that next time she might be the one to put it there. Which is definitely a thought she will unpack at a later time. 

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” she asks, and Nico wants to say yes, she really does, she just has no idea what the other girl is talking about. 

“What?” she asks instead, and she almost doesn’t care that she sounds clueless when she sees the laughter sparkling in Karolina’s eyes. 

“The stars,” the blonde replies, turning back towards the glittering night sky. “They’re so… hopeful.”

“I don’t know, I always thought they were more depressing,” Nico answers honestly, and Karolina turns to her, brows furrowed. 

“What do you mean?”

“Just... there’s so much emptiness out there, how can we possibly be anything more than an insignificant little speck in a vast universe, you know?” she shrugs, looking at her feet and wondering why in the world she was sharing this with someone she barely knows. 

When she looks up again, Karolina’s smiling at her. 

“I get it. But I always thought that it was poetic, that we’re so small. Like, we’re tiny on our own but we’re part of something bigger.”

She hadn’t really thought of it like that before, and huh, it’s a nice way of looking at things, she decides. Even if her current views are more realistic. 

Nico tries to ignore the way her heart rate picks up as she looks into Karolina’s eyes. They’re sitting so close together that their legs are almost touching and _god_ if it doesn’t feel intimate. It’s probably way too soon, but if she just leans forward she could-

“Looks like they’re back,” the blonde says happily, turning away from the shorter girl next to her and directing her attention to the car pulling into the driveway.

And now she’s standing up, and of course, Nico missed her chance. 

She gets up as well and as Karolina starts heading towards the car, Nico catches her wrist. She has to make sure tonight isn’t the last time they see each other. 

“You’ll be at the wedding Sunday, right?” she asks.

Karolina laughs for a second before answering. “I should hope so, I am getting married after all,” she says with a smile before walking up to Xavin and pressing a kiss to their cheek.

Nico stands in shock, watching as Xavin and Karolina head back into the house hand in hand, and _what?_ She finally finds someone she could maybe sort of almost see herself with after Alex and she’s getting married in four days? How is that fair?

“You coming?” Chase asks once he’s out of the car and by her side. 

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, sorry,” Nico nods quickly, and her mind is racing as she follows the boy carrying four pizza boxes inside.

Victor is quick to grab the boxes once they enter, and as soon as he’s out of earshot Chase turns towards Nico. 

“I’ve seen that look before,” he says, raising his eyebrows purposefully. 

“I don’t know what you mean,” she answers quickly, but she’s caught off guard and she knows she’s not fooling Chase, who seems to be much more observant than anyone gives him credit for. 

“Okay,” he shrugs. “But just so you know, she doesn’t believe in love. Do what you will with that information.”

And with that cryptic message, Chase turns and heads towards where everyone else is setting up the dining table, taking a seat next to Gert. 

Nico shakes her head and heads towards the table, taking a seat on the other side of Gert. What was she getting all worked up over? Some girl? That wasn’t like her. She’ll get over this… crush, or whatever it is, quickly, go to the wedding, then head back home with Gert and never think about Karolina again. It’ll be fine. Right?

She keeps her eyes on her plate during dinner, only speaking when spoken to, and pretty soon she and Gert are saying their goodbyes to everyone. 

“We’ll see you at the rehearsal Saturday!” Gert calls as she climbs into her truck, and Nico doesn’t miss the way her cheeks flush when Chase winks at her. 

“What was that about?” she asks once they’re on the road. 

“What do you mean?”

“You and Chase? I thought you said you were over him?” 

“It’s true, I did say that. I was lying though, and things are different than they were before. I know now that I don’t like him because he’s the obvious choice, I like him because he’s… Chase, you know?” Gert explains, and a dopey smile takes over her face and Nico is most definitely _not_ jealous that the other girl has found someone who makes her smile like that. She has that too, sort of. It’s just… her someone doesn’t quite smile back. 

“Well, glad I came along then,” Nico says sarcastically, because to be fair she really only came so Gert wouldn’t have to face Chase alone. But now that seems to be exactly what she wants, meanwhile Nico feels like she has a broken heart which is just _beyond_ dumb because she barely even knows this girl. 

Gert clears her throat and breaks Nico out of her brooding thoughts as they pull into the hotel parking lot. 

“So… I’m actually heading out to meet Chase now. I’ll, uh, I’ll be back late,” she says awkwardly, and Nico has to hold in a groan. At least now she can wallow in peace. 

They say goodnight and Nico heads to their room, quickly getting ready for bed and crawling under the covers. 

She runs her hands over her face as she lies on her back, staring up at the shapes the shadows are casting on the ceiling. 

Something about Karolina won’t let Nico stop thinking about her. There’s something in the way she smiles, the way she laughs, the way she sees the world that Nico just can’t get out of her head, and she’s pretty sure it’s going to be the death of her.

She rolls over onto her stomach and buries her face in the pillows. 

Stupid Gert and her stupid friends and their stupid weddings. Honestly, she should have known better than to agree to this. Her trying to be a good friend never ends well. 

She falls into a restless sleep, and she stirs when Gert crawls into bed with her at well past two. 

And phooey, now she owes Karolina twenty bucks.

—————

> **She’s not really sure what to make of Gert’s new friend. She comes off a little guarded, and definitely broody, but there’s also something so… captivating about her. She interests her in a way nobody has before, and she doesn’t know what to do about it.**
> 
> **She closes her eyes and pushes these thoughts out of her mind, rolling over and wrapping an arm around Xavin’s sleeping figure. She appreciates their warmth, but it doesn’t feel like they fit together perfectly or anything like how it’s described in the movies.**
> 
> **As she falls asleep that night she wonders, not for the first time, if this is how it’s supposed to feel.**


	2. T Minus Three Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to thank everyone who read this, left kudos, and/or commented! I was really nervous posting this so you all made my week! Thank you!
> 
> Also I probably should have mentioned this before, but I’m going to be updating Saturdays.

#### T minus three days until the wedding. 

Nico is jolted awake by the sound of a phone ringing, and it takes her all of ten seconds to place the heavy feeling of dread that had settled in her chest as she slept. 

And _great,_ she’s barely awake and already she’s thinking about Karolina. 

She pushes the thoughts aside because really there’s no point dwelling on it, she’ll figure it out later. For now she can focus on murdering Gert for leaving her ringer on and waking her up at six in the goddamn morning. 

“Chase, slow down. What’s wrong?” Gert’s saying and though Nico can’t make out his exact words, the Chase on the other end of the line sounds very worried about something. 

“Okay. Okay,” Gert continues. “We’ll be right there.”

—————

Gert had somehow managed to convince Nico that she just had to come along to the emergency wedding meeting that was currently taking place at Gib’s Diner, which happened to be both one of the group’s favourite restaurants and the only place open at this ungodly hour. 

So now Nico finds herself slumped over the table nursing her mug of coffee as she laments even being awake. It’s just Gert, Chase, and herself so far, and she’s only half listening to their panicked discussion as they wait for the others to arrive. 

“At least try and pull yourself together for her,” Gert sighs exasperatedly. “You’re her best friend, you freaking out is only going to make her freak out even more.”

“Oh, no that’s fine. Chase is pretty good at doing the freaking out for the both of us,” a playful voice interjects, and Nico can’t turn towards the source fast enough. 

Sure enough, Karolina’s standing next to the table smiling at them, and Nico thinks she looks even prettier just out of bed with no makeup on. Then Xavin walks up behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist and Nico looks back down at the grey tabletop in front of her. She really needs to stop thinking things like that. 

Molly and Victor arrive a couple minutes later, and pretty soon they’re all seated around the booth. Nico’s squished between Chase and the wall, and it’s almost as if the booth wasn’t meant for seven adults to crowd into. 

“Alright, so now that everyone’s here, Karolina can you please explain what’s going on? This one over here has not exactly been the most helpful,” Gert says, motioning towards Chase as she does. 

Karolina laughs before responding, and Nico hates herself for thinking that maybe now she doesn’t mind having been woken up so early. 

“Basically Timely Weddings double booked and they won’t be able to host us on Sunday. If we want to stick with them we’ll have to postpone.”

“But we cannot do that since all of our guests have already booked their tickets here and it is much too last minute to tell them to cancel,” Xavin adds. 

“They can’t do that, can they?” Victor asks. “I mean, you booked months ago. They can’t just _cancel._ ”

“You would think, but apparently it was in the fine print. It’s not a big deal though-” Karolina starts responding, but Gert is quick to cut her off. 

“Not a big deal?” she says before Chase quickly cuts in as well. 

“Karo, I know you’re all positivity and sunshine, but seriously, we do need to figure something out if you want to have a wedding in three days,” he says meaningfully, looking at the blonde intently who meets his gaze. 

“I do. Of course I do. So what needs to get done?” she asks. 

“Timely was supposed to provide food, venue, decorations, party favours, cake-” Xavin starts listing, but Gert interrupts. 

“Great, so we basically need everything. Alright, who’s ready to plan a wedding in three days?” she says as she buries her face in her hands, an action that causes Chase to rub her back comfortingly from his seat next to her. 

“Is there anything we _don’t_ have to do?” Molly asks, sounding only half-interested as she stifles a yawn. 

“Yes, actually. They don’t provide wedding attire, so Karolina and I both had to purchase our outfits. I actually have a fitting in just a few hours,” Xavin explains, and Gert visibly relaxes at the prospect of having one less thing to do. 

“Okay, so here’s the plan,” Gert says, because of course she has a plan already. “We start with the biggest things and work our way down from there, then at least we’ll have some semblance of a wedding if we don’t finish everything in time. Chase and Molly, you’re on flowers. I’ll look into the venue. Victor, you go with Xavin to their suit fitting.”

Everyone nods and stands up from the table to head out, but before they can leave Karolina speaks up. 

“What do you want me to do?” she asks. 

“When will your dress be ready?”

“Not until Saturday,” the blonde replies.

“Okay then. Do you think you could do a cake tasting today? There’s that little shop in town that you could try, they usually offer last minute cakes,” Gert says. 

“Of course,” Karolina responds with a smile. “Thanks for all your help, Gert.”

“Don’t worry about it, Karo. Really,” she replies before turning to where Nico’s sitting, barely listening and mostly zoned out staring at Karolina. 

“Nico, you’ll go with her,” the purple haired girl says, and it’s enough to snap Nico out of her own head. 

“What?” she demands, because helping plan the wedding of the girl she’s currently obsessing over is not what she had in mind for the day. She was leaning more in the direction of moping around the hotel room on her own. _This,_ this was a new level of torture. 

“You’re not going to make her taste wedding cakes on her own,” Gert scolds. 

“It’s fine, really. I don’t mind, you probably have better things to do anyways,” Karolina reassures her, and honestly her being so nice about it just makes it that much harder to say no. 

So she doesn’t. 

“No, it’s okay. I’d love to come,” she says through gritted teeth as she glares at Gert, who just looks back at her warningly. 

Karolina either doesn’t notice her tone or doesn’t care, because she smiles widely at Nico’s answer and suddenly she feels kind of bad for being difficult in the first place. 

Everyone else has left by now, and Gert quickly says goodbye too before rushing out, already on the phone with a potential venue. 

“According to their website, the earliest available cake tasting timeslot is today at noon,” Karolina says as she scrolls through her phone, typing something quickly. 

“Great. That’s only like five hours away,” Nico says sarcastically, but instantly regrets it when she sees the dejected look on the other girl’s face. 

“You can go if you want. I won’t tell Gert,” she tells her, avoiding eye contact. 

“No, no. Sorry, it’s fine. I’m just not really a morning person. I promise I’ll be nicer after I’ve eaten something.”

“Oh, okay,” Karolina responds, the smile already having returned to her face and Nico ignores the flutter in her stomach at having been the one to put it there.

She clears her throat then and looks away, because suddenly sitting alone across the booth from the other girl feels all too much like a date, and all too much like the universe is teasing her with something she can never have. 

“So, breakfast?” Karolina asks, passing Nico a menu and causing her to turn back towards her. 

“Sure,” she replies, and soon they’ve ordered and are waiting for their food to arrive. 

“You’re definitely handling this better than most people would,” Nico remarks, breaking the silence that had fallen between the two girls. 

“What do you mean?” Karolina asks. 

“Just, the whole wedding having to be planned in only a few days. I don’t want to stress you out or anything, but that’s not much time. Shouldn't you be worried that it’ll turn out to be a mess?” she answers, wincing as she does because while tact has never been her strong suit, even she recognizes that that comment was not the right thing to say. 

She lets out a breath when Karolina just laughs in response, light and happy. “I don’t know, I’ve never been into weddings all that much,” she shrugs. “It’s not a big deal to me if everything isn’t perfect, I just want Xavin to be happy with how it turns out, since it’s more important to them.”

“That’s nice of you. Xavin’s lucky to have you,” Nico says, hoping the other girl doesn’t notice how painful the words are to get out. It feels like the right thing to say, and she’s telling the truth, she would just rather steer clear of the topic of Xavin. Though that might be difficult at the moment, all things considered. 

“You’re sweet,” Karolina smiles, and Nico really wishes she had bothered to put makeup on this morning because maybe then the way her cheeks turn red at the compliment wouldn’t be quite as obvious. 

“And I hope you’re right. Xavin and I are going to be together for the rest of our lives, after all,” she continues and Nico swears she can see _something_ in Karolina’s eyes as she says it, she just can’t quite place what. 

It’s gone as quickly as it had appeared though, and Karolina’s all smiles when a tall, muscular man with dark hair and tan skin stops in front of their table with two steaming plates of food in his hands. 

“Enjoy,” he says as he places their breakfasts in front of them before turning towards Karolina. 

“And congratulations again, Karolina! Not long now until the big day,” he smiles. 

“Thanks, Gib,” the blonde replies with a smile of her own. “We’ll see you there.”

He nods in confirmation before heading back to the kitchen, and Nico turns back to Karolina. 

“You invited the diner owner to your wedding?” she asks with a raised eyebrow as they start eating. 

“He’s an old friend. We used to come here all the time after class during high school.”

“That’s cool,” Nico says, because she doesn’t really know what else she’s supposed to say. 

They chat idly as they finish their meals, and Nico’s surprised to find that the more she gets to know Karolina, the more she likes her.

Which is honestly the actual worst, because now she can see this stupid impossible crush of hers becoming something more, which is terrifying. The only person she had ever really been serious about before was Alex, and that ended terribly. Not that it matters since Karolina will be married in a matter of days, she keeps reminding herself. 

Once their plates are empty, Nico pulls out her wallet, which she had thankfully remembered to grab before rushing out of the hotel room this morning. Or rather, Gert had thrown it at her, but in any case she was glad to have it. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I can pay,” Karolina says, getting up. “It’s the least I can do considering the fact that you’re helping me plan my wedding.”

“It’s fine,” Nico answers, waving her off. “I owe you twenty dollars anyways.”

Karolina’s eyebrows shoot up at that. “You mean…?” 

“Yep,” Nico nods. “Gert didn’t get back until like two last night.”

Karolina smiles and pulls out her phone, presumably to text Chase, as Nico heads towards the counter to pay. 

She hands the money to Gib with a smile, and he leans towards her conspiratorially.

“She’s had a rough go of things, you know,” he says to her, and Nico stares blankly at him, because what is he talking about?

“I think you’d do her good, from what I’ve seen. Don’t give up on her,” he continues, and what is it with Karolina’s friends and giving her strange, cryptic messages?

Gib smiles at her before going to help another customer, leaving behind a very confused Nico who then heads back to the table. 

“What was that about?” Karolina asks curiously as she approaches. 

“Uh, nothing. I’m not sure. I’ll, uh, meet you at the cake place at quarter to?” she says, because as much as she wants to help her, she just needs some space, at least for a little while. 

“Oh, okay,” Karolina says, and Nico almost thinks that her face falls just a little, but that couldn’t be right. 

—————

She spends the next few hours in the hotel room wallowing. 

“What are you doing, Nico?” she mumbles to herself as she lies on the bed, staring up the ceiling. 

“You’re better than this. You barely even know her, get over it already.”

She groans and rolls over, burying her face in the pillows. 

By the time it’s eleven thirty, she’s come to the conclusion that she just needs to try and enjoy whatever time she gets with the girl, get spending time with her out of her system or whatever, and then head back home and forget this ever happened. 

She pulls on her jacket and stuffs her hands as far as they’ll go into the pockets, trudging down the sidewalk and towards the store.

The town Gert and her friends had grown up in is pretty small, and it only takes her twenty minutes to make it to the bakery. 

She can already see Karolina as she approaches the store, her height and the fact that she somehow seems to radiate happiness making her easy to spot. 

“Hey,” Nico says as she reaches her, and Karolina turns towards her with a big smile. 

“Nico!” she practically shouts, quickly wrapping the shorter girl up in a completely unexpected hug. 

“Uh, hi,” she responds less than half as excitedly, and Karolina’s face falls at the shorter girl’s uncomfortable expression. 

“Sorry,” she mutters sheepishly, avoiding Nico’s gaze and stepping back far enough to show that she’s giving Nico her personal space back. 

“No, it’s fine,” the shorter girl says quickly, because there’s no way she’s turning down physical contact with her. “I was just surprised is all.”

Karolina seems to believe her and, after a brief hesitation, grabs her hand and pulls her into the store. 

“I got here a bit early and started looking around, I hope you don’t mind,” she says as she leads them towards a table in the back.

“Of course not. It is _your_ wedding cake we’re getting,” Nico replies with a shrug. 

“Right. Obviously,” Karolina nods. 

“Hello, ladies,” a young man with slick black hair and an eyebrow piercing says as he approaches their table. He’s dressed in the store’s uniform, a black polo shirt and slacks, and the name tag pinned to his shirt reads _Topher._ “You’re here for the cake tasting, correct?”

Karolina nods in response. 

“Lovely. I’ll bring out the samples in a moment.”

They watch him walk away before Nico leans in close to Karolina and whispers in her ear. 

“I think he’s a vampire,” she says in her most serious voice, and she thinks that the burst of laughter she gets from the other girl in response is more than enough for her to finally forget about her brooding and instead just enjoy herself. 

“For the happy couple,” the man says when he returns to the table with six different slices of cake, all with various flavours, fillings, and frostings. 

“Oh, we’re not-” Nico starts, but Karolina quickly interrupts her. 

“Thank you,” she says as she smiles sweetly at him, and he nods before explaining the different types of cakes they had in front of them. 

When he finally leaves them alone, Nico turns towards Karolina with a confused look on her face. 

“What?” she asks innocently, and Nico raises an eyebrow. 

“He seemed like a creep and I didn’t want him hitting on you,” she says with a shrug when Nico doesn’t respond. “You know, vampire and all.”

“Okay then, thanks,” Nico says suspiciously, because that doesn’t feel like the whole truth, but she’s not going to push it. Even just pretend dating the girl sounds pretty good right now. Or maybe like hell. She’s not entirely sure yet. 

They spend the next half hour talking and laughing as they try the different kinds of cake. 

“You’ve got to try this one,” Karolina says, scooping up a bite of chocolate cake with cream cheese icing onto her fork and holding it in front of Nico’s mouth. 

The goth girl pauses for a second, just staring at Karolina because _what the hell is going on?_ She’s engaged, about to be married, and now she’s inexplicably not only letting people believe that they are together, but also acting all coupley with her? 

Karolina is still looking at her expectantly, and obviously this doesn’t mean anything. She probably does this with all her friends she goes to fancy cake tastings with, Nico’s just overthinking it and making a big deal out of nothing. 

So she opens her mouth and Karolina feeds her the bite, a smile stretching across her face as she tastes the rich flavours. 

“Wow, this one’s really good,” she says, covering her mouth with her hand as she speaks. “I mean, they all are, but this one’s like, _really_ good.”

“I agree,” Karolina responds with a smile. “I’ll go find the guy to tell him we’ve made a decision.”

“Whoa, hold on,” Nico says quickly, grabbing the taller girl’s arm to keep her from standing up. “He doesn’t have to know just yet, does he?” 

Nico motions towards the other five partially eaten cake slices strewn across their table, and Karolina’s smile widens. 

They stay at their table for another hour, Nico going so far as to request to try another kind, which causes Karolina to swat at her playfully once the boy’s back is turned. 

“What are you doing?” Karolina whispers. 

“You don’t want more free cake?” she whispers back. 

“Well obviously, but isn’t this like, disingenuous?” 

Nico just grins in response and Karolina hides her face in her hands until the cake has been delivered. 

“Come on, Karrie,” Nico says. “We’ll finish this slice and then go pay full price for something, okay?”

She doesn’t get the laugh she was expecting in response, and isn’t quite sure what to make of the frozen stare she’s met with instead. 

“Karrie?” Karolina says quietly after a minute, and Nico’s eyes widen as she realizes she just used a nickname for a girl she’d only met yesterday. Way to be overly clingy, Minoru. 

“Oh shoot, sorry!” Nico says quickly, and she can feel her cheeks heating up. 

“It’s okay!” Karolina responds a bit too loudly, before lowering her voice. “It’s okay. It’s fine.”

“I didn’t mean to-” 

“No really, I don’t mind,” Karolina insists, and something about the soft smile she’s giving Nico makes her believe it. 

“Okay.”

—————

They’re walking around the downtown area of the town, which is admittedly quite small, after having ordered the cake for the wedding. 

Nico has come to learn that Karolina is a very physically affectionate person, and as such the two girls are arm in arm as they walk. 

She just really hopes Gert doesn’t see them like this because she will never hear the end of it if she does. 

“So how did you and Xavin meet?” Nico asks. She really needed to do something to remind herself that this isn’t a date, and thankfully nothing kills the mood like talking about the fact that one of them is about to get married. 

“Through our parents, actually,” Karolina says. “They thought we’d be a good match and they set us up. I know, it’s not the most exciting or romantic of ways to have met, but it’s what happened.”

“That’s kind of sweet, I guess,” Nico shrugs and Karolina laughs. 

“I suppose. After that first date we kind of just kept going, you know? And now, here we are.”

Nico glances up at the taller girl, confused by the tone she has taken and the resignation in her voice. 

“Right,” she says, because what else can she say?

“Do you ever feel like you started something because you thought it was a good idea, but then you got so stuck in it that you didn’t notice it might not be until it’s too late?” Karolina asks suddenly, turning towards her, blue eyes searching brown eyes. 

“Uh…” Nico trails off. She’s not really sure what she’s supposed to say here, but Karolina’s clearly looking for something. 

“Sorry. You know what? Never mind,” the blonde says quickly, resuming walking in the direction they had been heading, leaving Nico to jog a few paces to catch up. 

“Karolina,” she calls when she reaches her, but her presence isn’t acknowledged. 

“Hey, Karrie. Slow down,” she says, grabbing for the taller girl’s hand and gently guiding her to turn in her direction when she stops walking. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just pre-wedding jitters I think,” she says, smiling a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. 

“Okay,” Nico answers, and her mind is racing because she wants to help, she does, it’s just that feelings aren’t really one of her strengths. 

She notices a sign over Karolina’s shoulder, and she’s reminded of the conversation they had had the night before, looking up at the stars while they waited for pizza. 

Her face lights up as an idea forms, and before she can think better of it she’s pulling Karolina along behind her as she rushes off. 

“Nico!” Karolina cries as she’s dragged along. 

“Come with me,” Nico says, smiling as she looks back at the girl behind her. 

It only takes a couple minutes to reach their destination, and soon they’re standing outside of a planetarium, one of the various tourist attractions scattered throughout the town. 

“The planetarium?” Karolina asks skeptically. “If you want to do touristy stuff, I can suggest something better…”

“Just come with me,” Nico insists, and Karolina follows her in. 

Nico pays, and soon they're wandering through a subpar planetarium, looking at the various exhibits on the different planets and other celestial bodies. 

“Nico, why are we here?” Karolina asks eventually, and Nico tightens her grip on her hand in response. 

“Just trust me, okay?” she says, and Karolina nods and doesn’t bring it up again. 

Fifteen minutes later they finally come to a stop outside of a door with the words _Written in the Stars Exhibit_ in bold, sparkly lettering printed across it. 

“Here we are,” Nico says proudly, and Karolina looks at her oddly. 

“Nico…”

Nico opens the door and pulls Karolina into the dark room, almost entirely empty save for the cushions and beanbags scattered across the floor and the few tourists sitting on them. 

They take a seat near the middle, leaning back on a large cushion and it’s only then that Karolina finally looks up, Nico watching her intently as a broad grin stretches across her face. 

She turns her head then, looking up to where Karolina’s looking at the starry night sky projected across the curved ceiling of the room. 

They lie there for a while, hands still intertwined, and Nico’s happy, and she really hopes Karolina is too. 

Even if nothing comes of their friendship, which she’s sure will be the case, she’s glad she got to spend today with her. 

When Karolina turns her head towards Nico and smiles gratefully at her, she can’t help but whisper what she’s been wanting to say since they arrived.

“Part of something bigger, right?”

—————

> **Today was… very much not what she had expected. There was the whole wedding falling through thing, which obviously came as a surprise, but even more than that was the way that she felt when she was with Nico.**
> 
> **Which really she shouldn’t be thinking about at all, she’s engaged for crying out loud, and yet here she is lying in bed with her betrothed, thinking about someone else. Honestly she kind of hates herself for it.**
> 
> **She doesn’t think about the part where she pretended they were a couple for no reason, as she doesn’t have the slightest clue as to how to even begin processing that split second decision.**
> 
> **She ignores the way the other girl calling her Karrie made her feel too, because she just doesn’t know what to make of that either.**
> 
> **It’s just… Nico taking her to the planetarium to cheer her up after remembering the conversation they had had earlier had surprised her. It kind of meant a lot to her, probably more than it should have. Nico was just trying to be nice, help her out after her little freak out, nothing more.**
> 
> **She knows Xavin cares about her, and would never do anything to hurt her, but the fact that they’ve never done something even close to as meaningful for her keeps her up longer than it should that night.**


	3. T Minus Two Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to everyone who read this, left kudos, and/or commented! I really appreciate it!

#### T minus two days until the wedding. 

Nico rolls over in bed and buries her head under the pillows, grumbling as the blinds are pulled up to let the sun stream into their room. 

She and Karolina hadn’t gotten back from the planetarium until late last night, and Gert was already asleep when Nico crawled into bed, exhausted, so really she should know better than to wake her up before noon this morning. 

She has no intention of doing anything today except wallow in the fact that she has to go to Karolina’s wedding in two days. 

“Gert, what the heck?” she groans when it becomes much too bright for her to have any chance of falling back asleep. 

“Good, you’re awake. You’d better be out of here in the next half hour, you’re meeting Karolina in forty five minutes to look for wedding favours,” Gert says from where she’s pulling on her jacket by the foot of the bed. 

“What?” 

“Wedding favours. Now get dressed.” Gert throws some of Nico’s clothes at her as she says this, laughing when her shirt lands on her face. 

“No! I can’t!” Nico shouts, a little too panicked, pulling the recently thrown clothes off of herself as she sits up in bed. 

“Why not?” 

“Because I- I hate her,” she says with a wince. She’s losing her touch. She can usually lie her way out of something like this, clearly love has made her soft. And _nope,_ that’s not a thought she’s going to dwell on, she does _not_ love Karolina. 

“You can’t hate her. You barely know her. And besides, she’s like eighty percent sunshine or something- it’s impossible to hate her,” Gert dismisses as she grabs her car keys. 

“Can’t you go?” Nico whines, and Gert looks at her funny because she must sound desperate. 

“No. I have to figure out the venue today, I have a tour booked and everything,” she explains exasperatedly. “Now get dressed, I wasn’t joking about you being pressed for time.”

Nico groans as Gert leaves, slamming the door behind her. 

It’s not even thirty seconds later that Gert’s poking her head back in, frowning when she sees Nico still hasn’t gotten up. 

“I will feed you to Old Lace if you do not get up now. Do what you will with that information,” she says, completely deadpan, before heading out and closing the door again. 

Being fed to her truck was a running joke that the two of them had started on the drive up after Nico had commented on how much gas they had burned through. Gert had told her that Old Lace would probably eat anything, and apparently if Nico doesn’t get a move on she’s going to make that list pretty soon. 

She lies in bed for all of five minutes before she resigns to getting ready to leave, because as much as spending another day with this wonderful, amazing girl that she knows she’ll never have makes her want to cry, she also can’t wait to see her again. And besides, she wouldn’t dream of leaving Karolina waiting. 

As she gets dressed, a memory pops into her head thanks to Gert’s parting words. Chase had told her that first night that Karolina didn’t believe in love. And then just yesterday Gib had told her that she’d do Karolina good. She’s still not really sure what to make of either of those comments. Being on the verge of getting married sure seemed like believing in love, and good for her how? All Nico seemed to be good for in past relationships of any kind was messing them up. She’s just lucky that Gert still sticks around after everything, and Karolina doesn’t deserve to be put through any of that. 

She’s lacing up her combat boots when her phone beeps with a text from Gert. She opens it to see the address of the shopping plaza she’s supposed to meet Karolina at, and it’s about a fifteen minute walk so really she should’ve left about seven minutes ago. 

She rushes out the door, slamming it shut behind her and practically running to where she’s supposed to meet Karolina. Well, she runs the first five minutes and after that she’s too out of breath to keep it up, and she ends up just walking brusquely the rest of the way, but it’s the effort that counts. 

She arrives five minutes late, panting for breath as she scans the crowd for any sign of the blonde. She finds her quickly, sitting on a bench and staring off into the distance, a conflicted look taking over her features. 

“Hey Karrie, sorry I’m late,” she says as she takes a seat on the bench next to Karolina, who looks up at her, startled.

“Oh, hi. It’s okay,” she reassures her, but Nico’s not entirely convinced. 

“Is everything okay?” she asks tentatively, and the blonde shakes her head, letting out a watery laugh in response. 

“Yeah, no. I’m good. So good,” she says, quickly standing up and plastering on a smile. 

And okay, maybe Nico hasn’t known her that long yet, but she knows for a fact that the smile she’s wearing now is nowhere close to genuine. (She can tell because it doesn’t give her butterflies when she looks at her, instead it fills her with concern.) (But she’d never admit that first part to anyone.)

“Okay,” Nico replies skeptically. 

“You ready to buy some wedding favours?”

“I mean, I don’t have a clue what they are, but sure,” Nico shrugs, following as Karolina stands from the bench. 

“You know, they’re like a, umm…” Karolina trails off. “You know what? We’ll know it when we see it,” she finishes, and Nico can’t help but laugh fondly. 

“If you say so.”

They wander through the shops for a while, not really finding anything particularly interesting. 

“How about this?” Nico asks, picking up a plastic bobble head in the shape of a little green dinosaur with a nose ring.

“Uh, no,” Karolina says with a laugh, poking at it and making the head bobble. 

“I can’t even imagine what my mother would say if we gave out dinosaur bobble heads as wedding favours,” she continues before pausing for a beat. “You know what? Actually I think I can.”

She stands up straighter then, assuming a less cheerful and more judgemental expression that Nico guesses is supposed to represent her mother’s. 

“Karolina Dean,” she says in an affronted voice, and Nico laughs. “You sully our family name with your foolishness! No daughter of mine will distribute… _trinkets_ such as these at her wedding!”

Karolina can’t maintain a straight face any longer after Nico doubles over, tears in the corners of her eyes because really, the other girl's impression seems entirely believable, and pretty soon the blonde breaks down laughing as well. 

Once they recover, they continue looking around the shop, but it’s fairly small and nothing else catches their eyes. 

“Well, I think this place is a bust. Do you want to check out that new place down the road? It looked a little touristy, but we might be able to find something,” Karolina asks as they finish their second loop of the shop. 

“Sure,” Nico nods, before quickly heading over to the dinosaur display they had been at earlier. “I’m just going to pick up one of these for Gert. To thank her for taking me to meet her friends.”

She picks one up and turns back to Karolina, who’s looking at her like she thinks Nico’s cute. Which she certainly isn’t. 

“What?” she asks, eyes narrowing. 

“You’re sweet under all that black clothing,” Karolina says fondly, and Nico narrows her eyes even further. 

“Am not. Never mind, I won’t buy it,” she says, crossing her arms, which maybe wasn’t the right move because now Karolina’s looking at her like she’s completely adorable. 

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Karolina says, taking the bobble head from Nico’s hand and heading over to the counter. 

Nico follows and pays grumpily, stuffing the dinosaur into her bag as they leave the shop. 

They spend the next two hours wandering between the various shops that line the street, but don’t end up finding anything. 

“Who knew wedding planning was so hard?” Karolina sighs as she slumps down onto the bench they had been sitting on earlier. 

Nico sits down next to her tentatively, not really sure what to say to make the other girl feel better since it was true, they weren’t making much progress today and they were kind of getting to be pressed for time. 

“Yeah,” she settles on, and Karolina looks up at her with a smirk. 

“Yeah?” she asks teasingly, and Nico can feel her cheeks turn pink. 

“Shut up,” she says, and thankfully she does because her phone starts ringing before she can form a response. 

“Hello?” Karolina says as she raises the phone to her ear, and Nico watches how her expression quickly turns worried and her brow furrows. 

“Yeah, okay. No, it’s fine,” she’s saying. “Really Gert, don’t worry about it. Text me the information. Bye, love you too.”

“What was that about?” Nico asks once she’s hung up, ignoring how her stomach flips when Karolina says the word _love._

“Chase is an idiot,” the blonde replies, and Nico laughs.

“And Gert called just to tell you that?” she asks with a teasing smile. 

“Not exactly. There’s good news and bad news,” Karolina says with a sigh. “The good news is Chase and Molly finally got the flower situation sorted out.”

“And the bad news?” 

“The bad news is that Chase is an idiot and brought his beetle with virtually no trunk space, meaning he had to call Gert to bring Old Lace so that they could actually bring the flowers back with them.”

“Gert’s got to be mad about that,” Nico laughs, before Karolina continues. 

“Oh, she is. But it gets better,” she says and Nico looks at her expectantly. 

“Gert had a venue tour booked today and now she can’t make it since she has to go pick up the flowers. So now I get the joy of touring the wedding venue alone two days before my wedding since Xavin’s busy picking their parents up from the airport. Ugh,” she elaborates, burying her face in her hands as she finishes, and Nico has to resist the urge to physically comfort her. 

“I mean, you don’t have to go alone…” Nico says, trailing off because _yes,_ she does realize that she’s basically volunteering herself to accompany Karolina to her own personal hell. But she just looks so sad, Nico really doesn’t have a choice but to offer herself up for a slow, painful death. 

“Nico, would you?” Karolina asks excitedly, her face lighting up, and yeah, Nico definitely would. She would do anything to get Karolina to look at her like that again. 

Not that she would ever tell her any of that. Instead, she shrugs as casually as she can manage. 

“I’m not doing anything else today.”

“Thank you so much!” Karolina says happily, reaching around her to pull Nico into a tight hug. 

The shorter girl closes her eyes and leans into the embrace for just a second, before realizing what she’s doing and quickly, and awkwardly, pulling away. 

“So, uh, when’s the tour?”

—————

Nico feels entirely underdressed as she follows Karolina into the church at the address Gert had texted them. 

It’s small, fairly traditional, with wooden pews leading up to an altar and intricate stained glass in the windows. 

They’re only five minutes late, which is pretty good considering how they had to run to catch the bus to get there.

“Miss Yorkes?” a woman around their age with purple hair asks as they enter, looking up from having been scrolling through her phone. 

Karolina quickly leads them over to the woman, offering a small wave as they approach. 

“Hi,” she says, once they reach the woman. “I’m Karolina Dean. Miss Yorkes couldn’t make it, but I’m the bride so I’m here to take her place.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Dean,” the woman says with a smile. “I’m Van.”

“Karolina, please,” she corrects. 

Nico has been standing there awkwardly this whole exchange, suddenly unsure as to how to introduce herself. Was it presumptuous to call them friends? Should she call herself a new acquaintance, or was that too weird? Last time, Karolina had pretended they were a couple, and she would be lying if she said she didn’t kind of hope that would happen again. It was nice to pretend, even if it was just for a little while. 

When Van turns to her, clearly expecting an introduction, she doesn’t say anything. 

“This is Nico,” Karolina says when she notices that Nico has no intention of introducing herself. “She’s my…” she starts, but trails off as she presumably goes through a similar thought process to the one Nico had just gone through. 

In the end, the blonde turns towards Nico, looking a little lost. The shorter girl just raises her eyebrow curiously, and looks her directly in the eyes as she waits for her decision. 

Karolina’s face splits with a mischievous grin, and Nico barely has time to worry about what she has planned because then she’s turning confidently back towards Van. 

“She’s my fiancée,” she says with a smile so genuine and wide that it would be impossible for anyone to not believe her. 

Her parents must be actors or something, because that was very convincing, or at least Nico thinks so. 

As if it needed to be any more believable, Karolina then reaches down and grabs Nico’s hand, intertwining their fingers, and _why exactly is this happening to her again?_

She swallows hard and hopes Karolina doesn’t notice her cheeks turning pink because now everyone thinks they’re a couple. 

And she has to keep reminding herself that they’re not. 

“Congratulations,” Van says with a kind smile. “If you’ll please follow me, we can start the tour.”

They follow as she leads them through the various rooms of the church, showing where the ceremony would be held and where the reception would be, as well as a nice green space outside where photos could be taken. 

Nico tries her best to pay attention to the detailed lesson Van is sharing about the church’s history of inclusivity. Really, she tries. But Karolina’s hand is so warm and reassuring that it’s taking up all her mental energy not to just melt.

And honestly it’s kind of scary how fast and hard she’s falling for the girl next to her. Even more so because she can never have her. 

Karolina’s holding her hand firmly, and Nico’s skin feels like it’s on fire at the contact, and is it hot in here or is it just her? Actually, she’s kind of nervous, and she was never nervous with Alex. And oh god, is her hand starting to sweat? What if Karolina notices?

She tries to smile at the other girl so she doesn’t notice her inner freak out, because apparently she’s now the type of girl who freaks out at holding someone’s hand. 

Karolina gives her an odd look in return and it would seem that she’s not as good an actress as she had hoped she was. 

“Hey, you okay?” she whispers, and Nico nods her head a little too enthusiastically, the look on the other girl’s face showing her skepticism. 

Maybe she should just focus on Van. That’ll probably help. 

She leads them over to the stained glass, and Karolina lets go of Nico’s hand to walk over and get a closer look. 

Nico watches her appreciate the designs and smiles to herself. She’s so lost in her head that she startles when Van walks up next to her. 

“You know, almost half the people who come in here have pre-wedding jitters. Don’t worry about it, it’s clear you love her,” she says before giving her a knowing smile and walking away, leaving Nico standing in shock. 

Eventually Karolina finishes looking at the stained glass and heads back over to her, silently taking her hand again as they follow Van. 

When Nico finally pulls herself out of her head where she’s overanalyzing what Van had said to her, they’re reaching the end of the tour. 

“And that concludes the tour,” Van’s saying as she leads them back towards the entrance. “Are there any questions I can answer for you?”

“I think we’re good,” Karolina says with a smile. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Here’s our card if you think of anything, or want to call and book. I can only guarantee the time you wanted is available for the rest of the day, so do let us know soon.”

Karolina takes the card from Van’s outstretched hand, before leading Nico out the front door, turning to her worriedly as soon as they’re out of earshot. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asks, tugging on their still connected hands. 

“Nothing,” Nico says quickly, her voice a little too high. She clears her throat before trying again. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

“I spent like twenty four of the last forty eight hours with you. I think I know you well enough to see that something’s on your mind,” the blonde replies teasingly, but Nico can see the concern in her eyes. Which really only makes everything worse, because Karolina’s just so damn perfect. 

“It’s nothing,” Nico says eventually, but she knows she’s going to have to give Karolina something. “It’s just, I guess I’m all in my head about weddings.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“No.”

But Karolina pulls on their joint hands anyways and leads them towards a nearby bench behind the church, and for a minute Nico’s worried that she’s going to try and get her to talk about it. 

Gert’s tried doing that in the past, and that’s part of why their friendship got off to such a rocky start. She prefers to wallow alone in her feelings, and only ever share them under dire circumstances. 

In any case, she most definitely cannot share her current dilemma with the girl next to her, and she’s incredibly thankful when Karolina changes the subject. 

“So what did you think of the venue?”

“Oh. Uh, it’s okay, I guess. The stained glass was neat. And I like this whole graveyard thing going on out here,” she shrugs, motioning to the tombstones scattered across the area Karolina had pulled them towards. 

“Of course you do,” Karolina says with a fond smile. 

“But it doesn’t matter what I think. It’s not my wedding,” she says, and if she sounds a little sad when she says that last part, she hopes Karolina doesn’t notice. 

“I think Xavin would like it. And it’s probably the best we can get considering the fact that the wedding is in two days.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah. I guess I’m getting married here.”

“Alright then!” Nico says as enthusiastically as she can manage. “Let’s go book a venue!”

“Wait,” Karolina calls just as she’s getting up. “Can we just… sit here for a bit?”

“Yeah, sure,” Nico answers, quickly sitting back down next to the other girl. “Whatever you want.”

“Thanks,” Karolina says, and Nico nearly dies right there when the blonde leans her head against her shoulder. 

They sit in silence for a while before Nico speaks abruptly, surprising both Karolina and herself. 

“I thought I was going to get married once,” she says, and Karolina moves her head in order to look at Nico while she speaks. 

“There was this guy, Alex. We dated through high school and we talked about getting married someday.”

She really has no idea where this is coming from, because while it’s all true it isn’t what’s actually bothering her, she had made peace with it a long time ago. Or at least she thought she had. 

“What happened?” Karolina asks, and Nico can tell that she actually cares. 

“He turned out to be a complete jerk that I wasted a ton of time on,” she shrugs. 

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I’m still sorry.”

There’s a beat of silence before Karolina speaks again. 

“I didn’t think I was going to ever get married,” she says so softly that Nico would have thought she’d imagined it if it weren’t for the tears in the other girl’s eyes, her heart nearly breaking at the sight. 

She grabs her hand again, desperate to offer whatever comfort she can. 

“My parents… were not happy together. They fought a lot, and my mom ended up having an affair. They tried to stay together for me after that, but I think it just made everything worse,” Karolina says, as a single tear slips from her eye and tracks its way down her cheek. 

“But then I found Xavin, and I know they would never hurt me. We wouldn’t fight like that, they would never cheat on me. It’ll all work out.” she continues before pausing for a beat. “Right?”

Nico doesn’t say anything for a moment because there’s so much she wants to say. She wants to tell her that she would never hurt her, she would do anything for her. She wants to tell her that trust isn’t the _only_ thing needed in a relationship. Love was important too, and _god_ if Nico didn’t somehow fall in love with her over the past few days. She wants to tell her just how torturous it is to have to help her plan her wedding, because she wishes it was her that Karolina was marrying. She just wants her to know how much she means to her. 

But she doesn’t say any of that, she knows she can’t. So she says the only thing she can in this situation. 

“Yeah, I’m sure it will.”

They sit in silence after that, unbroken this time, and they watch the stars start to sparkle as the sky grows dark, finding comfort in each other. 

—————

> **So she pretended that they were together again today. It was innocent though, she just wanted to see Nico blush. And she very much did, honestly she kind of freaked out a bit, but that was because of Alex. It didn’t have anything to do with her.**
> 
> **The way Nico’s eyes shone when she looked at her, sitting together in the starlight, she doesn’t know what to make of it. It was something special, a shared moment.**
> 
> **Something she’s never had with Xavin.**
> 
> **But Nico reassured her everything would work out, and she was right. She had to be.**
> 
> **She can’t just throw away a stable, safe relationship for a chance at something else. Something that could just as soon crash and burn as work out. That’s much too risky.**
> 
> **She sleeps on the couch that night.**


	4. T Minus One Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so while I was editing this chapter I realized that I’m an idiot. Old Lace is not green. I’m pretty sure. At least not in the comics. Honestly I’m colourblind so I’m not entirely sure, but it’s fine, all my references to her in this fic are to her being green, so we’re just going to pretend. 
> 
> Also thank you all again so much for reading, as well as your comments and kudos, I find it so cool to think there are people who actually read what I've written! Thank you!!

#### T minus one day until the wedding. 

There is something about waking people up in the morning that Gert seems to just fundamentally not understand. 

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” she coos as she pokes Nico in the ribs repeatedly. 

“Gert!” Nico shouts, swatting at her with the arm that she hadn’t managed to somehow fall asleep on top of. 

“Finally! I have to go in half an hour and I wanted to talk to you before I left,” she says, as if that explains the rude awakening. 

“And we had to talk _right now?_ ” 

“Yes,” Gert says seriously. “You got back so late last night that we didn’t have the chance, so we are talking now.”

“We got caught up at the church,” Nico half shrugs, because even though she knows that Gert didn’t mean anything by that, she feels like she has to defend herself somehow. 

“I heard,” Gert says smugly, and now Nico’s sitting up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. 

“What?”

“Karolina texted me this morning.”

“She did?”

“She’s worried about you.”

“She is?”

“I don’t know how you did it, Minoru, but that girl really cares about you,” Gert tells her with a smile. “You’re lucky, she doesn’t usually let people close that quickly. What’s your secret?”

And once again Nico knows that Gert doesn’t mean anything, but she can’t help the way that her heart rate picks up and her palms start to sweat. 

_My secret is that I’m completely in love with her_ , she thinks, but she shrugs instead. 

“So what’s up?” Gert asks then, her face softening from the teasing expression she had on earlier into something more sincere. 

“What do you mean?” 

“She wouldn’t tell me what happened, but she asked me to check in on you. Care to explain?”

“Not really,” Nico says, crossing her arms uncomfortably. 

“Nico…” Gert trails off, her expression hard to read. 

Thankfully Nico remembers something as she notices the other girl’s car keys poking out of her jacket pocket and practically jumps out of bed. 

“I almost forgot! I got something for you. Or I guess for Old Lace,” she says, grateful for the chance to change the subject. 

She reaches into her bag and after a few seconds of rummaging around pulls out the item she was searching for. 

“Here,” she says, presenting the nose ring adorned dinosaur bobblehead to Gert. 

“This is… amazing,” she responds as she grabs it eagerly from Nico’s outstretched hand. “She’s going to look perfect on Old Lace’s dashboard. Thank you!”

She squeezes Nico in an all too tight hug before glancing at the time on her phone. 

“Oh shoot, I’ve really got to get going,” she says as she heads towards the door. “I need to go pick up the cake. Remember, Molly and Chase are finding some last minute wedding favours, and Xavin and Victor are figuring things out with the church, so you’re taking Karolina to pick up her dress at noon. Do not forget,” she adds sternly as she backs out of their hotel room. “I’m serious.”

“I won’t forget!” Nico sighs, throwing up her hands in mock surrender. “I will meet her at noon sharp.”

“You should get there a little early just in case,” Gert tells her. 

“I will be there just before noon then,” she amends, and Gert gives her a thumbs up before leaving the room, allowing for Nico to crawl back into bed and spend the next few hours wallowing. 

—————

She’s only part way through her wallow when her phone beeps with a text from Karolina. 

“Want to grab lunch before we pick up the dress?” it reads, followed by a string of emojis Nico cannot even begin to decipher. 

She quickly types out a yes and rushes to get dressed so she can meet Karolina at Gib’s Diner for eleven. 

She had done her makeup in a rush, her eyes a little darker than usual, and if Karolina’s reaction when she arrives is any indication, it must show. 

“Don’t you look broody today,” she teases, and Nico scowls. 

“Shut up,” she mumbles halfheartedly, and Karolina just laughs in response. 

They make their way towards the booth they had all shared when the wedding plans had just fallen through, which was only two days prior but felt like a lifetime ago. Nico had only just met Karolina back then, and while she definitely felt like there was something there, she had been blissfully unaware as to just what extent the girl would turn her world upside down. 

They each take a seat on opposite sides of the booth, and it’s not long until a waiter comes to take their orders. 

“I can’t believe I’m getting married tomorrow,” Karolina says as they wait for their food to be delivered, and Nico can’t help the way her jaw clenches at the mention. 

“Yeah, that’s pretty exciting,” she manages, even though the words are physically painful to say. 

“Gert said you texted her,” Nico continues awkwardly, desperate to change the subject away from the wedding they’re about to spend the whole day focusing on. 

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry about that,” Karolina says sheepishly. “I was just worried about you. I shouldn’t have done that though if you didn’t want-”

“It’s fine,” Nico cuts in, and she can’t stop herself from smiling at the other girl’s rambling. 

She ignores the warm feeling that Karolina being worried about her brings to her stomach. She’s probably just hungry. 

It’s not long until their food is delivered, and they chat idly as they eat, Karolina periodically checking the time to make sure they won’t be late to pick up her dress. 

“We should probably get going now,” she says just as Nico’s finishing her meal. 

“Okay,” she agrees, and they both slide out of the booth to head to the counter to pay. 

Karolina groans and stretches as she stands, and Nico eyes her amusedly. 

“You okay there?” she asks with a smirk. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” the blonde sighs. “Just slept badly last night is all.”

Nico offers a sympathetic smile as they pay for their food, then follows Karolina to the door. The taller girl opens the door for Nico and waits for her to go through first, and she most definitely does not blush at the gesture. 

—————

The walk to the tailor is a good twenty minutes, and the clock is just hitting twelve when they walk through the door to the shop. 

Nico hangs back a bit as Karolina walks up to someone who works there, pretending to busy herself in looking at the wedding dresses on display in the window. Really she just doesn’t want to see Karolina in hers, because as much as she’s tried to face the truth over the last few days, if she’s being honest there might be a small little piece of her that had held onto a hope that something could happen, no matter how impossible. Seeing Karolina in her wedding dress would make it all too real, and she’s not entirely sure how to deal with that. 

“Hi, I’m here to pick up my wedding dress,” she overhears Karolina saying. 

The man, who looks to be in his mid thirties, scrolls through a list on his tablet. “Name please?” he asks. 

“Karolina Dean.”

“Ah, yes. Your dress is just about finished, there were a couple measurements missing from your file so we couldn’t finish taking it in. It’ll just take a few minutes once you try it on, please follow me,” he explains kindly as he turns around, motioning for the blonde to follow him. 

“Nico, come on!” Karolina calls, and Nico tentatively follows along as well, trying her best to brace herself for having her heart shattered. 

They follow the man into a room in the back with a sewing machine on a table and a full length mirror covering an entire wall. 

Once they enter the room he turns to face the two girls before speaking. “I’m Matthew, and I will be your tailor. I have fifteen years sewing experience, ten of which I’ve been working here for. Just let me grab your dress and we can get started.”

They wait patiently as he searches through the rack of dresses against the far wall, checking the tags until he pulls out a stunning floor length white dress with shimmering undertones of pinks, blues, and yellows throughout, making it look almost ethereal. 

Nico’s not usually one for wedding dresses, they’re always much too fancy for her taste, but even she appreciates this one. Or at least appreciates how absolutely stunning it will look on Karolina. 

“It’s a beautiful dress you selected,” Matthew says as Karolina runs her fingers along the fabric. 

“Thank you. I’m very happy with it. What do you think, Nico?”

“Yeah. It looks… it’s really pretty. You’re going to look amazing,” she says, hoping she sounds casual and that she’s just imagining the fact that she sounds a little breathless. 

“Now if you’ll please put it on, I can make the final adjustments,” Matthew says as he heads towards the door. “Please knock once you’re ready.”

Once he leaves and closes the door behind himself, Karolina turns back to Nico, her expression unreadable. 

“You good?” Nico asks when the other girl doesn’t say anything. 

This seems to be enough to snap her out of it, because Karolina just shakes her head and mumbles something to herself, before directing her attention back to the shorter girl. 

“Yeah sorry. I’m good.”

Nico’s eyes quickly find the ceiling as the blonde starts changing into her dress. 

“Nico?” Karolina asks tentatively after a minute. 

“Yeah?” she responds, not daring to look at the other girl just yet. 

“Can you zip me up?” 

Nico gulps, because _how can the universe be so cruel?_

“Uh, yeah,” she manages, hoping Karolina doesn’t notice the way her voice trembles slightly. 

She takes her eyes off the ceiling only to be met with Karolina’s smooth back, exposed all the way down to the little dip in her lower back, and Nico needs a second to catch her breath. 

She shakes her head, because she has no right to be looking at Karolina like this, but judging by the smirk she can see on the blonde’s face through her reflection in the mirror, she doesn’t mind all too much. 

Her mind all but blanks as she slowly, painfully, pulls the zipper all the way up her back, hiding the exposed skin that she so badly wants to run her hands over. 

When she finishes, she has to clear her throat before she can speak. 

“I think,” she starts, before clearing her throat again, which is absolutely mortifying. “I think I’ll wait outside,” she finishes quickly, before rushing out the door. 

She nearly bumps into Matthew on her way out, and it takes her a second to recover. 

“She’s ready,” she says quickly before continuing on her way. 

She waits in the showroom for Karolina. It would be much harder to explain if she ran off, and Gert would never forgive her if she ditched Karolina the day before her wedding. And really she would never forgive herself either. So instead she wanders, looking at the different wedding dresses on sale and absently wondering if she’ll ever wear one. She’s kind of scared that she doesn’t particularly want to, not without Karolina in a matching one. 

She really just wants to go home and cry, but she’s pulled from her brooding when the door to the room Karolina has been in for the last ten minutes swings open, and Nico’s breath catches in her throat at the sight of the blonde walking towards her in her wedding dress. 

Nico can’t help the way her eyes travel up and down the other girl’s body, and when she gets back to Karolina’s face again, she’s smiling shyly at her. 

“You like it?” she asks nervously, and Nico doesn’t know why she even has to ask, how could anybody not like it when it made her look like a literal goddess?

She can’t quite form the words, and she’s really not sure it would be entirely appropriate for her to express just how amazing she thinks the other girl looks anyways, so instead she just nods enthusiastically, causing Karolina to grin. 

“You look… Karrie you look absolutely gorgeous,” she breathes, and okay maybe that was a bit much, but appropriate or not she needed to tell her. 

“Yeah?” Karolina asks shyly, and Nico nods again. 

Suddenly the two of them are standing incredibly close together, and Nico isn’t sure if it was her or Karolina that stepped forward to make the distance so small. 

All she can focus on now is the warmth she can feel radiating from the girl in front of her, the way her heart is racing so fast she’s worried it might break right through her ribs, and how if she tilts her head up just a little their breaths are suddenly mixing in the barely there space between them. 

Nico swallows hard and subconsciously licks her lips, the taller girl’s eyes dropping down to follow the movement. She starts leaning upwards ever so slightly, and Karolina leans in too, and Nico’s eyes fall closed as her heart threatens to break out of her chest. 

The rest of the store falls away and she can’t make out anything any of the other customers are saying, at least not until the door slams open and a particularly loud customer bursts into the store just as she feels the slightest pressure of the other girl’s lips on her own. 

“Put your shoes on, girls! We’ve got a wedding to rehearse!” an all too familiar voice shouts, and Nico and Karolina instantly jump back, putting as much distance as they can between themselves. 

They studiously avoid eye contact as Chase walks towards them, identical blushes covering each of their faces. 

“I’m going to go change,” Karolina mumbles out before quickly turning on her heel and rushing back towards the room she was in earlier, Matthew emerging seconds later. 

Chase stares at Nico with a raised eyebrow, but she refuses to meet his gaze as well, instead staring intently at her shoes. 

Karolina emerges a few minutes later, a garment bag in hand. 

“Thank you so much Matthew,” she says as she approaches the man, who returns her smile. 

“Of course, Miss Dean. You paid when you dropped it off, so you’re all set,” he says. “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thank you.”

They follow Chase outside and towards his car, a green convertible beetle with the word _Leapfrog_ printed across the side. 

“What is this?” Nico asks, horrified by the vehicle she’s looking at. 

“This,” Chase says dramatically, “is the Leapfrog.”

“I can see that,” Nico drawls, rolling her eyes. “But _why?_ ”

“Well you know how boats have their names printed on the side?” Chase asks, and Nico nods skeptically. “Well, I've always wondered why people didn’t do that with cars!”

“So you did it.”

“Isn’t it great?” he asks proudly, but just as Nico is opening her mouth to answer, she sees Karolina look at her pleadingly. 

She sighs. “So great.”

The small smile Karolina offers in response is more than worth it, and that fact alone takes Nico back to her earlier feelings of wanting to cry. 

She’s still not really sure what had happened between them before Chase had interrupted. Did Karolina just get caught up in the excitement of getting married and get carried away? Or did their almost kiss, or whatever the heck that was, mean something more to Karolina? Nico knows exactly what it meant to her, which is way too much. Is she a bad person for wishing that Chase hadn’t interrupted them, even if it would mean that Karolina would be cheating on Xavin? 

She pushes the thoughts from her mind as she climbs into the back seat of Chase’s car. It doesn’t matter anyways, Karolina’s getting married to Xavin and there’s nothing she can do about it. 

They sit in silence as Chase drives them all to Gib’s diner, where the rehearsal dinner is being held. 

—————

It’s nearing eight o’clock and Gib’s diner is packed with Karolina and Xavin’s friends and families, having been booked out completely for the rehearsal dinner. 

The meal itself is over now, Gert and Chase having given their speeches for Karolina, and Victor and Molly for Xavin. Karolina’s mother even said a few words, which the blonde had mentioned being nervous about, but which had ultimately gone over well. After the plates were cleared, the bar opened and the centre tables were moved to clear space for dancing. 

Now Nico’s leaning against the wall, watching the festivities from a distance like she usually does at events like these. She adjusts the grey dress Gert had brought for her from her bag in the hotel room, insisting that she had to wear it much to her annoyance. In the end she had changed, thankfully considering how dressed up the rest of the guests in attendance had ended up being. 

Karolina had changed too, into a flattering blue dress that Xavin had brought for her, and Nico can’t help the pangs of jealousy that she feels when she looks at the couple smiling and laughing arm in arm, not having left each other’s sides for the past two hours, travelling from guest to guest. 

Occasionally the blonde will look over in Nico’s direction, as if checking to make sure she’s still there, and the shorter girl is currently living for these fleeting moments. Which is sad, but once she goes to the wedding tomorrow she’ll have all the time in the world to get over her stupid feelings. Though the more she watches Karolina, the more she thinks that no amount of time could ever be enough. 

She’s pulled out of her thoughts when an older woman dressed in a white pantsuit makes her way over to her. 

“I haven’t seen you before,” she says, narrowing her eyes, but it isn’t really a question. 

“No, I’m a friend of Gert’s,” Nico responds. 

“Leslie. Karolina’s mother,” the woman says, reaching out the hand not holding a glass of champagne. 

“I’m Nico. It’s nice to meet you,” she says as she shakes the woman’s hand awkwardly. 

“Karolina’s so kind to let her friends bring friends to her wedding. If it were up to me there would be higher standards,” Leslie responds, and Nico can’t help but raise an eyebrow, because how could someone as kind and wonderful as Karolina come from someone like her?

But before Nico can say anything, Leslie continues, and it quickly becomes clear she has had more than a few drinks. “But really I think we’re all just glad she’s getting married. I was so worried it wouldn’t happen for so long, that’s why I had to get involved,” she explains, her words slightly slurred, and Nico’s brow furrows. “Karolina’s a nice girl, but she never does seem to know what’s best for her.”

“Karolina is more than capable of making her own decisions,” Nico interjects over the drunk woman’s ramblings, not able to listen to another word about Karolina’s flaws. 

“And what would you know about her? You’re only here with _Gertrude,_ ” Leslie replies, saying the purple haired girl’s name with so much disdain that Nico’s certain there must be some history there. But she doesn’t care about that right now. 

“Actually, I’ve spent a lot of time with Karolina over the last few days,” Nico answers harshly, taking a step towards the older woman. She knows she’s not the tallest person by any stretch, but over the years she’s been able to master being intimidating despite her smaller stature. 

“Is that so?” Leslie says, her voice raised too high and causing a few heads to turn in their direction. 

“Yes. And she’s an amazing person. She’s kind, and passionate, and genuine, and she always looked out for me even when we barely knew each other,” Nico explains determinedly, too worked up over correcting the distorted view Karolina’s own mother has of her to pay any attention to the looks they were getting from the other guests. 

“And even though you weren’t a very good role model for her when it comes to healthy relationships, she put herself out there and found someone who makes her happy. _She_ did that, not you. You don’t get to claim responsibility for her relationship just because you introduced them.”

“How dare you-” Leslie practically shouts, and by this point nearly everyone at the diner has their eyes on them. 

“No, how dare _you?_ ” Nico interjects, cutting Karolina’s mother off before she can finish her statement, and okay so maybe she’s had a few drinks too. 

“Karolina is smart, and funny, and beautiful, and everything good in this world. You have no right to put her down like that just to make you feel better about yourself,” she finishes, her chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath, suddenly aware of the fact that everyone’s attention is on her. 

Her cheeks turn red as she can feel even more blood rushing to them, her embarrassment at what had just transpired adding to the existing flush from having let herself get so worked up. 

She looks around nervously, brown eyes wide as she meets Karolina’s blue ones, who is looking at her with her mouth slightly open, a shocked expression taking over her features. 

Nico swallows, tears starting to come to her eyes as she turns towards the door, passing by a surprised Leslie, and quickly heads out into the dimly lit parking lot. 

She leans against the side of the building, blinking back the tears that had started spilling onto her cheeks as she takes deep breaths to calm herself. 

She just single handedly ruined the rehearsal dinner of the girl she loves. By getting into a screaming match with her mother. She is beyond embarrassed, and at this point she’s ready to just break down and cry for a few days. 

She’s just about to psych herself up for the five minute walk back to the hotel since it’s not too dark out yet when a tall figure rounds the corner of the building, coming to a stop next to Nico. 

She nervously glances up and she’s surprised when she sees Karolina standing in front of her, a soft smile across her face as she looks at the shorter girl worriedly. 

“Hey,” the blonde says softly, but Nico can’t quite find her voice in time to answer. 

“Thank you,” she continues, and Nico’s eyes shoot up from where she was staring at the ground to meet blue eyes. 

“What?” she manages to ask, hoping her voice doesn’t sound too strained. 

“For standing up to my mother. Hearing you say those things… it really meant a lot to me.”

“Oh.”

Nico’s not really sure what else she can say, so she just stares at the other girl until Karolina finally breaks the silence. 

“I should probably head back in.”

“Okay.”

Karolina smiles sweetly at her before leaning in and pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

Nico watches as she walks away, heading back inside to her rehearsal dinner, and to Xavin, and she can’t help the words that tumble out of her mouth just before Karolina’s out of earshot. 

“Do they make you happy?” she asks suddenly, and the other girl freezes, not moving for a solid minute before continuing around the corner of the building and out of sight. 

Nico sighs, tentatively reaching up to press her fingers to her burning cheek, and not for the first time she feels like a complete idiot. 

As she walks back to the hotel, the street lights are too bright for her to manage to make out any stars and she bursts into tears as soon as she walks through the door, collapsing onto the bed, still in her dress. 

—————

> **She hasn’t been able to stop thinking about the girl ever since what had almost happened at the tailor’s, even when she was hosting her rehearsal dinner, arm in arm with Xavin, and it's making her feel sick to her stomach.**
> 
> **But something had finally clicked into place when she heard Nico from across the room, standing up to her mother for her, and fighting to explain to her how amazing she thought she was.**
> 
> **There was truth to what Nico was saying, or at least she would like to think so, but there was also truth to what her mother was saying.**
> 
> **All her life she had tried to do what was expected of her, taking the safe and approved options instead of considering what she really wanted for herself. But now everything’s different. Nico had opened her eyes to what she could have if she just lets herself. _Who_ she could have. **
> 
> **She just needs to take a chance.**


	5. T Minus Zero Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading, commenting, and leaving kudos! I appreciate it all so much!
> 
> I worked hard on this chapter, I hope you like it!

#### T minus zero days until the wedding.

It’s nearing one in the morning when Gert finally tiptoes her way into the hotel room. Nico has been drifting in and out of a restless sleep for the past two hours, after having exhausted herself crying, and she’s sleeping light enough that even the other girl’s quiet footsteps are enough to wake her. 

She lies silently in bed while Gert shuffles around the room before heading to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. 

It’s about ten minutes later when Nico feels the slight dip in the mattress signifying that the other girl has joined her in bed. 

“I know you’re awake,” Gert whispers after a few minutes, and Nico sighs. 

She rolls over and Gert’s eyes widen at the sight of the puffy, reddened eyes in front of her. 

“Hey, what’s the matter?” she whispers as Nico rubs her palms across her face. 

“This is about what happened with Leslie, right?” Gert continues when the other girl doesn’t answer. “Don’t even worry about it, everyone could tell that she was pretty wasted. Nobody blames you for what happened, especially with the way you were defending the bride, and besides, Karolina thought it was really sweet of you.”

“It’s not that,” Nico mumbles, because really that’s not the problem here. The real problem is her broken heart, but hell if she’s telling that to Gert. 

“Chase told me what happened earlier,” the other girl tries tentatively. “Or at least as much as he knew. Is that it?”

“I’m not a bad person,” Nico manages, trying her hardest not to let her voice crack as she says it. 

“I know you’re not, honey. What happened?” 

“Nothing, it was a mistake.” 

“Oh, for sure. But it’s clearly not nothing if it’s got you so upset,” Gert coaxes, but Nico’s still not planning on giving anything up. 

“I’m not upset,” she says instead, but this time she’s not entirely successful in keeping her voice even. 

“How long have I known you?” Gert asks. 

“Three years.” 

“And do you really think your whole ‘I don’t have emotions’ act is going to work on me after everything?” 

“Yes.” 

“Nico…” 

Nico can’t help the sob that escapes her throat then, and a second later Gert’s arms are wrapped tightly around her, pulling her in against her side. She buries her face in the purple haired girl’s shoulder as the tears fall freely down her cheeks again. 

“Hey, hey,” Gert says once Nico’s sobs have died down. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”

It takes a minute but Nico manages to untangle herself from the other girl, moving to sit up against the headboard, and Gert quickly follows suit. 

“I think… I think I love her,” she manages once her tears have lessened. 

Gert’s eyes widen for only a second before she regains her composure, a sympathetic look taking over her features. “Oh honey… I’m sorry.” 

Nico wipes at her eyes and moves away from Gert, curling in on herself. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine,” she mumbles, more to herself than to the girl next to her. 

“Hey Gert?” she says after a long silence. 

“Yeah?” 

“I’m not going to the wedding tomorrow,” Nico whispers as she lies back down in the bed, pulling the blankets up to her chin. 

“I know,” Gert answers, lying down as well and wrapping an arm around the girl next to her. “I know.”

—————

It’s only ten in the morning when Nico jolts awake, sitting up quickly with a racing heart. It takes her a minute to shake herself out of the dream she was having, but when she does she almost wishes she hadn’t. 

There’s a note from Gert on the bedside table, and Nico picks it up and reads it as she climbs out of bed. 

_Heading out now, I won’t be back until late._

_You’re going to be okay, but it’s cool if you just want to brood today. I know that’s kind of your thing._

_Love you!_

Nico rolls her eyes, but honestly she has every intention of spending her day brooding so she can’t even really be annoyed at her friend. 

She grabs a granola bar before turning on the room’s tinny television, leaving it on a random channel as she crawls back under the blankets. 

She passively watches the show that’s currently being marathoned on whatever channel she’s flipped to as she sulks. 

From what she can tell, the show seems to be about a group of teens who find out their parents are evil and run away together. Then they discover that they all have some sort of powers, and now they’re being angsty teens in their underground hideout. 

She sighs and flips off the TV, because honestly Karolina would probably love this show, it actually looks pretty good, and she can’t deal with that right now. 

She showers and changes into a pair of pyjama pants, and she’s just pulling on one of Gert’s sweatshirts, which she had stolen from Chase and as a result is about six sizes too big on Nico, when there’s a knock at the door. 

She looks a mess, her hair still dripping wet and the sweatshirt nearly reaching her knees, but at this point she can’t bring herself to care as she trudges over to the door and swings it open on creaking hinges. 

“Karrie,” she breathes as she finds herself face to face with the girl who has been taking up all of her thoughts. 

“Hi Nico,” the blonde replies, and Nico hates how her heart swells at the way her name sounds on the other girl’s lips. 

They stare at each other in a silence that Nico would swear seems charged, but with what she isn’t quite sure. 

Karolina is dressed in jeans and a yellow T-shirt, and her long hair is falling messily over her shoulder in a loose braid. She looks nothing like someone who is about to get married in just a few hours. 

“What are you doing here?” Nico asks finally, shifting from one foot to the other and avoiding making eye contact with the other girl. “Do you need a ride or something? I could call Gert-” 

“Can I come in?” the blonde interrupts, and Nico slowly and confusedly steps aside, Karolina closing the door behind her. 

“Karrie- Karolina. What’s going on?” Nico asks, taking a better look at the other girl. She looks beautiful like always, but also kind of nervous. 

“They don’t,” she answers simply, a fond smile on her face as she _gazes,_ there’s no other word to describe it, at Nico. 

“What?” 

“They don’t make me happy. Not in the way that you do,” she says as she takes a hesitant step towards Nico. 

“What-” 

“Let me finish,” Karolina interrupts, speaking firmly but still kindly. “I don’t believe in love. I haven’t since I was a kid. Sure, it seemed nice in theory, but I just never believed it existed, not in the way it does in movies. You marry someone you get along well with, who makes your life easier, and you hope things work out. They usually don’t seem to. That’s why I was so ready to go all in when I met Xavin. I didn’t feel anything, but I didn’t think I needed to. I trusted them, and I thought that was enough.”

She pauses and takes another tentative step towards the shorter girl, whose mind is racing as she tries to process everything Karolina’s saying. 

“But then I met you,” she continues softly, and now Nico’s heart rate is trying to outpace her thoughts. “And you showed me how it was supposed to feel. You showed me what it could be like if I followed my heart instead of playing it safe. You’re special, Nico, and I don’t want to miss out on having you in my life. You’re thoughtful and kind, even if you don’t want anyone to see it. You stood up for me when I was too busy blindly following my mother’s advice to do it for myself. You’re everything I never believed in, Nico, and I want to see where this can go, if you’ll just give me a chance.”

The air is charged as the two girls stand in the entrance to the hotel room, cheeks flushed and breathing heavily, Karolina presumably from the importance of what she had just said, Nico still reeling from what she had just heard. 

“But… you’re getting married?” Nico says lamely, not able to form a coherent thought. 

“No. Well, maybe eventually. But not today. And not to Xavin. I called off the wedding.” Karolina smiles, delicately placing a hand on the side of Nico’s neck. When she doesn’t flinch away, she gently brings her hand up to cup the shorter girl’s cheek. 

“What?” Nico asks, somewhat louder than she had meant to, abruptly taking a step back and away from the taller girl, whose face falls at the distance. “No. No, don’t do that. Go back and tell everyone you’ve changed your mind. It’s not too late!” 

“Nico, stop. I don’t want to do that! I’ve made up my mind.” 

Nico rubs her hands across her face as she starts pacing around the room. 

“Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you upset? I thought you’d be happy. Did I misread the signals?” Karolina asks, and her voice sounds so heartbroken as she asks that last question that Nico is ripped out of her head. 

“I can’t ruin your marriage,” she says, her voice breaking as she shakes her head. 

“You didn’t. I don’t think we would’ve ever been happy. You just helped me see it before it was too late.” Karolina steps forward and Nico freezes as warm hands cup her cheeks again. 

She’s shaking now as she maintains eye contact with the other girl, brown eyes meeting blue. 

“Please, Nico,” Karolina breathes out, and Nico doesn’t want to stop herself anymore. 

This is all she’s wanted ever since she realized how hard she had fallen for the girl standing in front of her, the girl who ran out on her own wedding to come and tell her she wanted to give them a chance. The girl she hopes will someday become her everything, or maybe she somehow already became exactly that. 

Trembling hands find their way to Karolina’s hips, tentatively resting there as Nico gulps because suddenly it’s hard to breathe. The taller girl’s eyes dart down to her lips as they unconsciously part in anticipation of what’s about to happen. 

“Karrie…” Nico breathes finally, her voice much rougher than usual, and it’s all the invitation the other girl needs to lean down and close the distance between them. 

Their lips meet softly at first, and Nico nearly melts at the contact. Her knees are feeling weak already, and _damn_ she’s got it bad for this girl. 

She loses all sense of the world around her when hands tangle in her still wet hair, and she can’t help the gasp that escapes her lips. Karolina eagerly swallows the noise, deepening the kiss. 

Their lips slot, and it’s so easy to get lost in the push and pull between them because it all just feels so right. 

But then Nico finds herself being gently but firmly led backwards and she’s more than happy to allow it. Her knees hit the bed and she’s quick to adjust her position so that she is lying across it, Karolina’s lips never leaving her own as she positions her body between the shorter girl’s legs. 

The blonde pulls away after a few minutes, her eyes dark and her chest rising and falling rapidly as she hovers over Nico. Nico’s breath catches at the sight and as desperately as she wants to pull the other girl back in, she also wants to savour this moment because she doesn’t think anyone has ever looked at her like this before. 

She’s just about to pull Karolina back down and close the distance between them again when the blonde speaks. 

“We still have a lot to talk about,” she whispers, her focus never leaving Nico’s lips as she says it. 

“Yeah,” the shorter girl breathes, and she’s actually surprised her voice comes out within the realm of normal. 

“Do you want to talk about it now?” Karolina asks, starting to pull away even further until Nico’s hands tangle in her hair and pull her lips back onto her own. 

“No,” she whispers back, pulling away barely a fraction of a centimetre to do so. 

She can feel the other girl smiling against her lips as fingers pull at the hem of her sweatshirt, and soon it’s pulled over her head and then the rest of their clothing is discarded too. 

Nico is already addicted to the feeling of Karolina’s warm skin pressed against her own, and it’s not long until the two girls lose themselves in each other. 

—————

“Whoa,” Nico breathes, her head resting against Karolina’s collarbone as they lie together, their legs still tangled beneath the sheets. 

“Yeah,” the blonde smiles in return, pressing a quick kiss to the shorter girl’s temple, and _god_ if it doesn’t feel perfect. 

“That was…” Nico starts, but trails off because really she doesn’t know where she’s going with this. _Amazing, incredible, the best she’s ever had._ Nothing she could say felt like it would do justice to what had just happened. 

“Yeah,” Karolina sighs, her fingers absently carding through the other girl’s hair.

They’re lying in a comfortable silence, enjoying each other’s presence, when Karolina speaks up. 

“You ever think of dyeing this?” 

“What, my hair?” Nico asks and Karolina nods. “Not really. Why? You think it would look good?”

The taller girl grins in response, pressing another kiss to Nico’s temple. “Really good,” she mumbles, and Nico can’t help but laugh. 

“I’ll keep that in mind. Any colour in particular?”

“Blue,” she answers quickly, and Nico smirks as she lifts her head and turns to meet the blond’s lips again, kissing her softly. 

Suddenly they’re interrupted by the echoing of a car door slamming in the parking lot, followed by footsteps, and before either of them can react the handle to their front door is being turned. 

“Hey Nico, have you seen Karolina? You’ll never guess-” Gert says as the door swings open, green eyes widening as she takes in the scene in front of her. A startled cry escapes her lips as she covers her eyes and spins around, suddenly panicked. 

“Uh, yeah actually, I have seen her,” Nico smirks as she pulls away from the other girl, who buries her face in the shorter girl’s hair to hide her giggles. 

Luckily the two girls are nearly fully obscured by the sheets, just their heads, shoulders, and arms on display, for which all parties involved are thankful, considering how much more awkward this interaction could have been. 

There’s an uncomfortable silence for a minute as Nico and Karolina separate, shuffling under the sheets as they distance from each other. 

“I’m going to wait outside!” Gert announces suddenly, still facing the door. “I will be back in five minutes, I expect you to both be dressed and ready to explain.”

The two girls quickly get dressed once she has left the room, exchanging shy smiles every time they cross paths. 

Nico’s about to go tell Gert she can come back in when she notices the distraught look on Karolina’s face. 

“Karrie?” she says, her voice laced with concern as she takes the other girl’s hand in her own. “What’s wrong? Do you- are you having second thoughts?” she asks, and her voice wavers as she worries this was all just a mistake, that Karolina is about to tell her she shouldn’t have done this and go running back to Xavin. 

“No, no of course not,” the blonde replies quickly, her face softening and Nico visibly relaxes at the reassurance.

“What is it then?” 

“I just… I know I owe Gert an explanation, it’s just…”

“You want a bit more time to ourselves first?” Nico questions, and Karolina smiles fondly at her. 

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“Well then, follow me,” Nico says with a smirk as she leads the blonde towards the window near the bed and pulls the curtains back. 

She turns the handle to open the window and pops out the screen, quickly hopping over the sill and then offering Karolina her hand to do the same. 

The other girl takes it, even though she’s tall enough to simply step right through the opening. 

Neither girl lets go once she’s through, and they soon find themselves wandering aimlessly through the streets of the little town, fingers intertwined. 

“So… we should probably talk,” Nico says after a while, and she can feel the way the other girl tenses next to her. 

“Yeah.”

They make their way over to a nearby bench bordering a green space and sit down together, leaving as little space as possible between them. 

Nico looks over at Karolina, who is playing with her fingers nervously, and waits patiently as she wrestles with her thoughts. 

“I broke up with Xavin last night,” she finally blurts, and though this is what Nico assumed had happened, she still feels a wave of relief wash over her at hearing the words spoken out loud. 

“I told them that I was sorry but I didn’t think we were going to work out, we had always been more like friends than partners,” she continues, her eyes filling with tears and Nico takes one of her hands in her own, squeezing comfortingly. “They took it really well, which almost makes it worse.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” the shorter girl reassures, wiping a tear off the other girl’s cheek with her thumb. “I know it sucks right now, but your happiness is important. You did the right thing.”

“Did I?” 

Nico pauses for a second before answering. “I certainly think so. Regardless of whether or not it was the right thing to do though, it was definitely the brave thing.”

“Nico,” Karolina whispers, turning to look the other girl straight in the eyes and, for the first time since she met her, Nico can see fear shining behind blue irises. “What if this doesn’t work?”

“I believe in us,” she answers confidently and without thinking. “And I really hope that you will too. Because I really think this could work. I meant everything I said to your mom yesterday, you know. You’re amazing, Karrie, and I would love to have you in my life for a very long time.”

The blonde gives her a genuine smile at that, and Nico’s heart soars. 

“There you are!” Gert calls as she jogs towards them. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

“Sorry,” Nico shrugs sheepishly. “We just needed a minute.”

“So what’s going on here?” the purple haired girl asks, looking between the two girls on the bench with a raised eyebrow. 

“Don’t worry about it, Gert,” Nico tells her as she tries to motion with her head for her to drop the subject, not wanting to stress Karolina out any further.

But like always, Gert either doesn’t pick up on her meaning or outright ignores her as she continues to press them for details. 

“Last I heard, Xavin was saying how Karolina had called off the wedding because of what her mom had said, then I head back to the hotel to find you two in bed, I actually have no idea what’s going on.”

“Gert, drop it,” Nico tries, but once again she’s ignored. 

“Are you two together now?” she asks, and Karolina looks more torn than ever and if Gert keeps this up when it’s clearly making the blonde uncomfortable, Nico’s going to have some very angry words with her. 

She’s about to speak up and tell Gert to stop asking about it once and for all when Karolina raises their linked hands and presses a quick kiss to Nico's knuckles. And no matter what Gert might say later, the shorter girl definitely does _not_ blush. 

“Yes,” Karolina says confidently, meeting Gert’s eyes for the first time since she arrived, before her head whips towards Nico. “I mean, I hope we are. If that’s okay with you of course, I-” 

“It’s more than okay,” the shorter girl smiles back, looking into Karolina’s blue eyes and she just _knows_ that she would do anything for this girl. 

Gert clears her throat then and both girls quickly turn back to her, a wide grin across her face. 

“Good. I think you two will make each other very happy,” she says simply, before turning around and walking away.

“I’m staying with Chase tonight, by the way. The room’s all yours!” she shouts over her shoulder, and Nico can’t help her laughter at how pink the comment makes Karolina’s cheeks. 

—————

They eat dinner under the stars that night, and afterwards when Nico looks up at the night sky, for once she doesn’t feel quite so alone. 

She doesn’t even try to stop the smile that threatens to split her face when the girl next to her leans over to plant a kiss on her cheek. 

“A part of something bigger,” the blonde whispers, before leaning in further and capturing Nico’s lips with her own. 

—————

> **All her life she’s been afraid of doing the wrong thing, of ending up alone. That’s a part of what made Xavin so appealing, she was never really worried about messing things up. Maybe because there wasn't anything there to mess up to begin with. She doesn’t regret breaking things off with them though, only that it took her so long to see it.**
> 
> **She's so much happier in her new relationship, one filled with both trust _and_ love, but it’s not like things are perfect now that she’s with Nico. The fears are still there. Some days she’s still worried that they might end up like her parents. But Nico’s always there to make her feel better, even on the worst days, and it helps more than she can put into words. **
> 
> **Little by little she starts to believe.**


	6. T Plus(?) a Lot of Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe we're at the last chapter already! This has been so fun to write and post, and I absolutely love reading what people think of it in the comments, so thank you!!
> 
> And of course, thank you all so much for reading, commenting, and leaving kudos!! I appreciate it all!
> 
> Also, can I just say that I spend much more time proofreading my fics than I have any schoolwork, ever...

#### T minus negative one thousand three hundred and fifteen days until the wedding.

“I can’t believe we’re getting married today,” Karolina breathes as Nico smooths out the collar of the blonde’s shirt. 

“Having second thoughts?” Nico asks, a forced chuckle coming out of her mouth a second later, and Karolina’s face softens because as confident as Nico tries to seem, she can always see right through her. 

“Hey, look at me,” she says, crooking a finger and guiding the shorter girl’s head up until their eyes meet. 

The brown eyes she’s met with are filled with worry, and it physically hurts her because how can Nico not know just how much she means to her by now? 

“No,” she says firmly, willing the other girl to understand. “You, Nico, mean everything to me. I can’t wait to become your wife.” She can’t help the smile that splits her face as she says that last word, and a second later Nico is sporting a matching grin. 

“Yeah, okay,” the shorter girl says after a pause. “Sorry, I just-”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Karolina interrupts before leaning down to capture Nico’s lips with her own. 

The kiss starts off slow and sweet, until Nico’s hands find their way under Karolina’s jacket and dress shirt. She runs her hands along her back as the taller girl’s hands tangle in dark hair dyed blue at the ends, deepening the kiss. 

They’re standing in their bedroom in their apartment, theoretically getting ready together before they’re supposed to meet their friends. 

Nico’s wearing a full length grey dress that she designed herself, perfectly her style and really it’s driving Karolina crazy. Although to be fair, she would think she looked amazing in anything. Or nothing, which is what she currently has in mind as she starts to unzip Nico’s dress. 

Karolina herself opted for a light grey suit with a white button up shirt underneath, the top button undone, instead of a dress. She had already done the whole dress shopping thing before, and she really wasn’t looking to relive that, especially considering how stressful that time of her life had been for her. She’s glad that it happened of course, because it brought her to Nico, but this time around the only thing she cares about is getting to marry the love of her life. And besides, she looks pretty damn good in a suit if she does say so herself. 

“Wait, wait,” Nico breathes, and Karolina pulls back to look at her. “Do we have time?” 

“I don’t know,” she answers, their lips still nearly touching. “But it’s not like they can start without us.”

She leans back in then, and pretty soon she’s guiding Nico towards their bed, throwing off her jacket as she straddles the other girl and kisses down her neck. 

It’s not long until Nico’s fingers are deftly undoing the buttons on the blonde’s shirt, and then the rest of their clothes come off too. 

They spend the next hour lost in each other amidst whispered promises of forever. 

—————

They’re both giggling as they rush out of their car, running down the beach hand in hand towards where their friends are anxiously waiting for them. 

Even though she had been down here only a few hours ago to help set things up, Karolina’s stomach still fills with butterflies at the sight of everything all ready for the ceremony. A simple wedding arch stands in the middle of the sand, fairy lights hanging down from it and sparkling against the night sky filled with stars. 

Victor, Molly, and Gert stand beside the arch, a newly internet ordained Chase waiting in the centre, all of them dressed up and looking towards the newly arrived couple with various expressions on their faces. 

Chase is beaming at them, a proud smile on his face as he looks at the happy couple. Molly looks similar, a grin on her face showing her genuine happiness for the two of them. Victor looks unimpressed, checking his watch as if to emphasize how late they are, but the laughter in his eyes gives away the fact that he isn’t actually upset. Gert however is sporting an amused smirk, clearly able to piece together the reason for their lateness. Karolina’s so happy though that she can’t even bring herself to feel embarrassed, instead squeezing Nico’s hand even tighter and causing the shorter girl to look up at her with a loving smile. 

They practically run down the aisle together, fingers still intertwined, and their friends around them cheer and laugh. 

After everything that had happened when they had first met, neither girl was very interested in planning another wedding together, so when Nico surprised Karolina with her idea of just them and their four closest friends on the beach under the stars, she couldn’t resist. It was the things like that that showed her just how much Nico pays attention to her, and just how well she knows her. And she couldn’t be more confident in her decision to marry the girl. 

Nico and Karolina stand facing each other on either side of Chase, and the blonde can’t help the smile that threatens to split her face as she gazes into the eyes of the girl she’s about to marry. 

Chase clears his throat then, and when Karolina looks to him she laughs as she sees him already starting to tear up. 

“We are gathered here today,” he says, his happiness clear in his voice, “to celebrate two of my favourite people in the whole world finally getting married.”

Everyone laughs, and Karolina can’t help the way her heart speeds up at the way Nico’s eyes shine with love as she looks at the blonde. And _god_ she can’t wait to marry the hell out of this girl. 

“Now these two have prepared their own vows. Go ahead whenever you’re ready,” Chase finishes, and everyone watches the couple expectantly. 

“I didn’t-” 

“I could have-”

The two girls burst into giggles as they speak over each other, Nico taking the taller girl’s hands in her own and motioning for her to go ahead once the laughter has stopped, and Karolina’s sure the smile on her face could only be described as lovesick. 

“I didn’t always believe in love. I used to, but then somewhere along the way it all just started seeming too good to be true. I had given up on it for a long time, written it off as something that didn’t exist. And then this brooding, grumpy, _amazing_ girl came into my life and showed me just how wrong I was.” 

She pauses then, taking a deep breath, because no matter how much she had practiced this in the mirror since Nico’s proposal nearly a week ago, and their decision to get married as soon as possible, nothing could have prepared her for just how much she absolutely adores the girl standing in front of her in this moment. And just the thought of getting to spend the rest of her life with her- and great, now Chase isn’t the only one crying. 

Nico’s hand reaches up to her cheek then, her thumb gingerly brushing away a tear as a watery laugh escapes her mouth. Blue eyes meet brown, and Karolina can clearly see that same love she feels reflected right back at her.

“You changed my life that day you took me to that old, run down, subpar planetarium, and every day since I’ve been so glad that you did.” 

Tears are now falling freely down her cheeks, and she’s so glad Nico let her go first because she knows there’s no way she would’ve been able to form a coherent sentence had she gone second. 

“Nico, you are the most important person in my life. I know we didn’t get here the most conventional way, but I want you to know that I couldn’t be happier to be standing here with you today. There isn’t anyone I would rather spend the rest of my life with.”

Nico’s crying now too, happy tears rolling down her face as she rests her hand against Karolina’s cheek, and the taller girl can’t help herself from leaning into the touch. 

“I promise to love you forever, Nico Minoru,” she finishes, and the other girl is looking at her with so much love in her eyes that she can’t resist the urge to just lean forward and close the distance between them. 

Her eyes flutter shut as their lips connect, and she can feel Nico’s smile against her mouth as she closes her eyes too, leaning into the kiss. They’ve only just barely started, and Karolina is about to lift a hand to the other girl’s cheek when they’re suddenly interrupted by a shout. 

“Hey, whoa!” Chase exclaims from where he’s standing just a few steps away, just through the arch. “We’re not at that part yet!”

Karolina can feel Nico’s laugh against her lips as they pull apart, and she beams as the shorter girl smiles brightly at her, wiping the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. 

“Sorry, Chase,” Karolina mumbles sheepishly, not taking her eyes off the girl in front of her. 

Nico takes a deep breath, seemingly calming her nerves, and not for the first time Karolina’s left breathless by just how incredibly gorgeous she is. 

“I could have never imagined that Gert dragging me back to her hometown could have changed my life so completely, but from the moment we had that first conversation, the two of us under the stars, you changed the way I saw the world. And I want to keep seeing the world that way for the rest of my life, with you by my side.”

They’re both crying again, and when she looks around Karolina can make out tears in all their friends’ eyes too. 

It may have taken a lot of work, both on her own and with Nico’s help, but she is so incredibly happy to have gotten here, and she wouldn’t want anyone else by her side. 

“Karolina, you mean everything to me. You are the kindest, smartest, most caring, most beautiful person I have ever met, and I couldn’t be more excited to spend the rest of our lives together. I promise to love you forever, Karolina Dean.”

Chase is wiping tears off his cheeks now, smiling proudly at the girls in front of him. 

“That was beautiful…” he sighs, and Karolina doesn’t miss the way his eyes flicker over to Gert after he says it, before looking back to them. 

“Now,” he continues dramatically, clearing his throat. “I pronounce you wives. You may kiss.”

Karolina smiles, leaning down to capture Nico’s lips with her own, kissing her sweetly and trying to pour all of her feelings for the other girl into it. 

Their friends cheer and applaud for them, and the blonde can’t help the grin that covers her face, interfering with her ability to kiss Nico properly, but she can feel the other girl’s smile against her lips and she wouldn’t have it any other way. 

They pull apart, both girls smiling widely as their friends rush over to congratulate them, the stars shining brightly in the night sky, and as Karolina wraps an arm around the shorter girl’s waist, she knows that this is exactly where she belongs. 

—————

The six of them are all scattered around the couple’s living room, a good number of alcoholic beverages having already been consumed, and Rufus running around from person to person, enjoying the attention. 

Both Nico and Karolina have changed out of their wedding finery, opting for something more comfortable for the small reception they’re hosting at their apartment. Nico’s wearing grey jeans and a plain black t-shirt, while Karolina herself opted for a simple white dress. 

“I still can’t believe I’m an uncle!” Chase slurs from where he’s sitting on the couch, leaning heavily on Gert as he strokes Rufus’ fur. 

The black cat purrs contentedly, his green eyes slipping shut as he’s lulled to sleep, and Chase grins. 

“I mean, he’s a cat, so I don’t believe it either…” Gert grumbles from beside him, rolling her eyes. 

“Hey, don’t be like that, babe,” Chase pouts at the girl next to him. 

“Yeah, he’s our baby,” Karolina adds from where she’s curled up with Nico on the nearby armchair, her words slightly slower than usual. 

Ever since she and Nico had adopted that kitten last month, Chase had been enamoured with him and as such had been overjoyed when Karolina asked him to be Rufus’ uncle, much to Nico’s amusement. So far his duties as uncle mostly seem to consist of monopolizing the cat’s attention and constantly bringing up his title, so she’s still not entirely sure that was the right call after all. 

“Hey, we’re not here to talk about cats!” Molly shouts from where she’s lying on the floor, having fully taken advantage of the alcohol offered to her now that she’s old enough. “We’re here to talk about Deanoru!” 

“What?” Nico asks, an adorably confused expression on her face, and Karolina’s much too in love to even try and stop herself from leaning in and kissing the other girl. 

Nico kisses her back eagerly, and they continue until Gert clears her throat loudly, reminding the girls that there are other people in the room still. 

“Sorry,” Karolina shrugs sheepishly, even though she isn’t sorry at all. “But I’m confused too. I thought we were Nicolina?”

“Again, what?” Nico reiterates, and Molly laughs. 

“You’re both, I guess,” the younger girl explains. “It just depends on who you ask.”

“Well I for one am team Nicolina,” Victor says from where he’s sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch. “But really, the wedding was beautiful, I’m so happy for you both.”

“Thanks Victor,” Karolina smiles. “We’re so grateful you all could make it. It wouldn’t be the same without you here,” she continues, directing her words towards their four friends. 

“Yeah, thanks,” Nico adds, somewhat awkwardly even though Karolina’s sure she’s being sincere, and the blonde can’t help but smile fondly. She really loves this girl. 

“I’m going to make a speech!” Chase announces suddenly, standing abruptly from the couch and causing a startled Rufus to jump to the floor, seeking comfort from Victor. 

“Chase, honey, I love you, but please sit down,” Gert urges, grabbing at Chase’s hand. 

“Aww, I love you too, Gert,” Chase beams as he looks lovingly down at his girlfriend, tucking a strand of her newly dyed brown hair behind her ear. “But don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody that we’re pregnant. I’m very good at keeping secrets.”

Chase raises a finger to his lips as Gert’s eyes widen, and suddenly her insistence that she’s fine with just water all night makes sense. 

“Oh my god, no way!” Molly exclaims, jumping up from where she was lying down, swaying a bit on her feet as she makes her way over to the couch. “That’s so awesome!”

“Thanks, Molly,” Gert says with a smile. “We weren’t planning on telling anyone yet, since we’re celebrating Nico and Karolina right now, but yeah, we’re pregnant.”

“That’s so amazing! Congratulations!” Karolina smiles. She knows they’re both going to make amazing parents. 

“Yeah, that’s really great!” Nico adds, a wide smile on her face and the blonde can’t help but imagine the two of them becoming parents someday, and the thought only makes her own smile widen. 

“Seems like everyone’s having babies these days,” Victor remarks after the chorus of congratulations for the parents to be, and everyone turns to look at him. 

“Who else is having a baby?” Karolina asks curiously. 

Victor’s eyes widen as if he only just realized that he had spoken out loud. “Uh…” he trails off, looking panickedly at Gert, who rolls her eyes at him. 

“Don’t make it weird, Victor,” Gert scolds before turning towards the new couple with a shrug. “Xavin just had a little girl named Elle.”

A weight feels like it’s been lifted off of Karolina’s shoulders at the other girl’s words. She has no regrets about her decision to break up with Xavin so she could be with Nico, but a little part of her has always worried that she ruined Xavin’s life, despite the fact that they had broken up fairly amicably all things considered. But Xavin has a family of their own now, and Karolina’s married to the most amazing girl in the world and the love of her life. It seems like maybe sometimes things can work out for the best, and she’s so very happy that Nico came into her life to show her that. 

“Time for my speech!” Chase declares, and all eyes are directed towards him. 

“Karolina,” he starts, the dopey grin on his face causing the girl in question to laugh. “You have always been my best friend, ever since we were kids. You were the first person I ever told about my crush on Gert, and you were the one who convinced me to take that chance, which I am grateful for every day. It has been so great to watch you grow into the amazing woman you are today, and I am so glad to have you in my life.” 

Karolina can feel tears pricking at her eyes because that was unexpectedly touching coming from a tipsy Chase, and it’s clear that he means every word he’s saying. 

“From the moment I saw the way Nico looked at you, I knew she was the girl for you. I knew she would make you happier than you could ever be with Xavin, and I even gave her a nudge in the right direction.”

The girl raises her eyebrows at this, because somehow Chase has managed to make bringing up her ex in his wedding speech not the most notable thing he said. 

“I’m just really happy you two found each other,” Chase finishes, raising his glass into the air and taking a big sip before flopping back down on the couch. 

“Thank you, Chase. I am too,” Karolina answers, looking towards the girl on her lap as she does. 

She’s met with Nico’s fond gaze and a smile that’s reserved just for her, and without even thinking about it she’s leaning in to press their lips together in a quick kiss. 

Molly turns on some music then, and pretty soon they’re all up and dancing around the living room. 

—————

Everyone hangs out for a couple more hours, before Gert tactfully suggests that they all get out of the new couple’s way. And as much as Karolina enjoyed having everyone there, she is incredibly grateful now that they’re gone and she gets Nico, _her wife,_ all to herself. 

“So…” Nico says, standing shyly in front of Karolina after she closes the front door, the last of their guests having just left. 

And it’s funny, because they’ve been alone together countless times in the last just over three and a half years since they started dating, even more once they moved in together, but everything feels different this time, and Karolina can’t help but feel a little nervous. The good kind of nervous, more excited than anything else, but she can’t stop the blush that rushes to her cheeks as she stares down at her toes. 

“Are you going to kiss me or what?” Nico says then, breaking the silence, a small smirk playing across her lips as she looks at the taller girl. 

“Always,” Karolina breathes as she quickly steps forward, closing the distance between them and crashing their lips together in a passionate kiss. 

Things quickly progress from there, this being their wedding night and all, and soon Nico’s shirt’s being thrown off as she wraps her legs around the taller girl’s waist, allowing for Karolina to take them both into the bedroom. 

It isn’t long until all clothing is discarded, and the rest of the night is filled with declarations of love as the two girls lose themselves in each other. 

—————

“I love you so much, Karrie,” Nico breathes against the crook of her neck from where they’re lying in bed, tangled up together under the sheets. 

“I love you too, babe,” she smiles back, pressing a kiss to the top of Nico’s head and nuzzling into her hair. “So much.”

They lie together in silence for a while, and Karolina’s just drifting off to sleep when Nico speaks up again. 

“Sometimes I can hardly believe we got here,” she says so quietly that the blonde has to strain to hear her, but she knows Nico well enough by now to know that whatever the shorter girl’s trying to tell her is important, and has probably been on her mind for a while now, so she wills herself to pay attention and stay awake. 

“It’s just, do you ever wonder if we just got lucky?” Nico asks, and Karolina smirks. 

“I mean, if you have to wonder then I must be doing _something_ wrong, because I know for a fact that I just did. Multiple times.”

She doesn’t think she’s ever going to get tired of the way Nico’s cheeks turn pink at her teasing, because the girl wrapped up in her arms is completely adorable, no matter how much she may deny it. 

“Not what I meant,” the black (and blue) haired girl mutters, swatting at Karolina with the hand that isn’t currently intertwined with the blonde’s fingers. 

“Sorry,” she smiles sheepishly. 

“I mean like, what if Gert hadn’t dragged me along? What if that venue hadn’t fallen through? What if we had never had that one conversation under the stars that made me realize how amazing you are?” Nico rambles, and Karolina presses a soft kiss to her cheek. 

“This is heavy stuff for our first night as wives.”

“Sorry. Never mind, it’s fine.”

“Hey, no. Sorry. I was just teasing,” Karolina reassures, gently running her thumb across Nico’s cheekbone, and she can see the genuine concern in the other girl’s eyes. 

She takes a deep breath as she thinks about the girl’s question, trying to decide whether or not she should answer honestly. More than anything, she wants to make the girl in her arms feel better, but will telling her what she thinks she wants to hear really help? She shakes her head, because _no,_ she spent long enough lying to herself about what it is she needs to be happy. She’s not about to start lying to Nico too. 

“Come with me,” she says instead, pulling Nico out of bed with her as she makes her way to their balcony, sheet still wrapped around the both of them. 

They settle into their lounge chair- they only have the one but Karolina really doesn’t mind, they both fit snugly so long as Nico is half on top of her. 

The stars are still sparkling in the sky above them, a stark contrast to the darkness around them save for the bustle of the city below, and Karolina can’t help but think back to the night they met.

“I want to tell you we would’ve found our way to each other no matter what, that even if any of those things hadn’t happened, we would still be here now, together,” she says as she cards her fingers through Nico’s hair. “But the truth is, I don’t believe that. I think there are an infinite number of possibilities where we didn’t end up together.”

“What?” the shorter girl asks, craning her neck to be able to look Karolina in the eye. “You’re not really making me feel better about this.”

“Let me finish,” she smiles, because Nico needs to hear what she has to say. 

“Everything about life is luck. It’s crazy that we even exist, because everything that happened before now had to happen in pretty much the exact way that it did for us to be here,” the blonde continues, as the shorter girl looks up at her with a furrowed brow. 

“But we beat the odds, Nico. And I’m so incredibly glad that we did. There might be millions of possibilities where we didn’t end up together, but I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be nearly as happy in any of them as I am right now, with you.”

Nico smiles at her then, and Karolina can feel her heart fill with her love for the girl on top of her as she presses a kiss to her cheek. 

“It’s kind of like the stars then, huh?” Nico asks as she settles back against the taller girl’s chest. 

“What do you mean?”

“Like, there are so many of them, but out of all of them we have the sun, which like, supports life or whatever,” she shrugs. “And each star out there is kind of like a different possibility, but if we had one of them instead, then odds are that none of us would even exist.”

“Yeah. Exactly like that, yeah,” Karolina smiles, because Nico just _gets_ exactly what she’s trying to say. She gets _her._

“What was that cheesy thing you said to me when we first got together?” Nico asks with a soft smile on her face that Karolina can’t help but match. 

“What, you mean that you were everything I never believed in?” 

“Yeah, that,” Nico nods, propping herself up against the armrest of the chair so she has a better view of the taller girl’s face. “Do you still feel that way?”

“Of course.”

“Good,” Nico smiles smugly, and the look she’s giving Karolina now makes her stomach fill with butterflies, even after all this time. “Because I feel the same way.”

She leans in then, connecting their lips gently as Karolina’s eyes flutter closed, the two girls kissing lovingly against the backdrop of a starry sky. 

—————

> **Sometimes she still feels like an insignificant speck when she looks up at the night sky. But knowing Karolina will always be by her side makes her feel a little less alone, and like maybe they really are a part of something bigger after all.**


End file.
